As a leading yacht crew agency, the recruitment data YPI CREW releases annually is an invaluable tool for understanding the state of yachting today and is a key resource for everyone involved in the industry.

Once again, the figures related to yacht crew jobs indicate that the industry is expanding. The number of job requests on yachts increased by an impressive 16% compared to 2017.

For the fourth consecutive year, our yacht crew agency data shows that the majority of positions were on yachts of 71 metres and more in length. These represented 40% of total yacht jobs and an increase of 18% compared to 2017.

Positions on yachts of between 51 and 70 metres was the second busiest segment, with a 30% share of jobs. This is a slight drop on 2017's figure of 32.2%.

The share of jobs aboard motor yachts rose once again, representing 94% compared with 90.5% in 2017. Consequently, the percentage of jobs on sailing yachts dropped slightly to 6%. These figures are coherent with the global yacht market.

If you are a jobseeker weighing up the benefits of working on a private yacht versus a charter yacht, you'll be interested to learn that 66% of jobs in 2018 were on private yachts. This clearly indicates that it's well worth interviewing for private yacht crew jobs rather than waiting around for charter positions.

Captain jobs represented only 4% of jobs while the remaining 96% were crew jobs. Officer registration hit a record high in 2018, which raises the question of whether there will be enough captain jobs in the future.

The number of new candidate registration has increased by 8% in the past 12 months and by 23% over 24 months. This again points to the growth and appeal of the yachting industry. The year 2018 was the busiest ever in terms of steward and stewardess registration.

Our data also reveals that in 16 years, 2018 was the second busiest in terms of engineering registration. As in 2017, most candidates were seeking rotational contracts. As a yacht crew agency, 2018 marked a milestone for YPI CREW: we registered the highest number of job orders and placements made in our 16 years of existence.

Laurence Lewis, Managing Director of YPI CREW, comments:

"2018 was a productive year for YPI CREW; all the recruiters were fully engaged. This is the second consecutive year that we have registered record figures for job orders and placements. The yachting industry is flourishing. Finding qualified and experienced crew is hard, so captains and hiring managers are turning towards our crew agency to find solutions. "

For experienced crew members or those who are new to the industry, our yacht jobs are an invaluable resource for finding exciting new challenges.

Discover 2019 crew recruitment data in our 2019 yacht crew trends report.