Thanks in part to salary raises, fewer seafarers are leaving the profession.
The annual Crew Managers’ Survey undertaken by Danica Crewing Specialists, which included in-house crew managers in ship owning and ship management companies, revealed that almost 90% had reported that they had increased salaries in 2024.
Only 7% said they had not raised crew wages over the past year. Companies were more generous too – with increases above those reported in the 2023 survey, except for junior ratings.
Senior officers benefited the most – 75% in 2024 compared to 63% in 2023.
Junior officers got an increase of 67% against 59% in 2023, while 65% of senior ratings (bosun, fitter, cook) saw their wages increase, compared to 54% in 2023.
A little over 50% of other ratings also enjoyed increases in both 2023 and 2024.
Not surprisingly, retention rates are reported to have improved. The survey reveals that the fluctuation of seafarers has generally reduced, with 41% of crew managers reporting that the retention rate has improved during the past 12 months, compared to only 29% in the previous survey period. However, 23% of companies did say they felt the retention rate had worsened, although this is a decrease compared to the 36% in the 2023/24 survey.
Overall, the findings of the survey showed an improvement, with fewer respondents saying the recruitment situation had worsened over 2024. However, still about a third (31%) found that the intake of new competent hands had become worse or much worse in the past 12 months.
Henrik Jensen, CEO of Danica Crewing Specialists, commented: “This indicates that it is not a shortage of seafarers that concerns crew managers, but rather a shortage of competent seafarers.”
Crew managers are mitigating risk in their crew supply chains by expanding the number of countries they recruit from – a strategy also identified in Danica’s 2023 survey and a result of global issues such as the Covid-19 pandemic.
Crew managers responding to Danica’s survey came from a range of company sizes and a wide geographical spread, with particular input from Greece, UAE, Denmark and Germany. They were largely working within crewing departments and in senior positions, with 83% having worked in crewing for more than six years. There was a notable increase in the number of respondents working in larger crewing departments, compared to those taking part in the 2023 survey.
Danica’s 2023 survey identified that crew managers were finding their jobs harder than in the past. In the 2024 results, 38% reported they felt the complexity of their jobs had not increased, while only 4% said their job had become easier. Only 4% responded to say they felt crewing vessels had become easier. Jensen commented: “Of course, this doesn't mean that finding crew has become easy!”
