I have no official data, but I can offer the following from my own experience. Yes, HR is still in demand, but there is an increasing need for HR Directors with legal knowledge. The personnel business is becoming increasingly litigious with matters that include race, ethnicity, hiring practices, pre-employment testing/screening, disparate impact, ADA accommodations, FMLA, retaliatory action, progressive discipline, wrongful termination, etc. IMO, businesses really need HR Directors with the legal knowledge to handle some of these issues while balancing the practical needs of the business.
I hold the SPHR. It often shows up in job ads as either a requirement or a desired qualification. In order to gain the certification, one must demonstrate knowledge of a variety of HR areas, including labor law.
SHRM certifications? No. I've never seen them in a job posting. Note, however, that SHRM only has two certificates, SHRM-CP and SHRM-SCP. The most broadly acceptable credentials in HR are the SPHR/GPHR/PHR certifications which are awarded by the HR Certification Institute, not SHRM. While they used to be associated they ended that relationship in 2014. On the one hand, I could see maybe getting the SHRM certification as getting in on the ground floor of what could be the HR Certification of the future. On the other hand, there are just too darn many of us with PHR/SPHR to just go back to hit the books and add more alphabet soup to our business cards. But there are other certifications that, often when coupled with HRCI certifications, add a powerful punch. If you're a benefits person then CEBS is pretty well regarded. I don't think I've ever seen CEBS as a requirement but when I do see it, it is always as a desired qualification. (Full disclosure: I hold the CEBS designation as well as the PHR) So, the HRCI designations are the broad, but well regarded, essentials to an HR professional's resume. There are other specialty certifications that are also good but usually take a backseat to SPHR/PHR. All of this is covered in GPHR/SPHR/PHR to varying degrees (GPHR gets into the nitty gritty while PHR is more broad). Honestly, this list is a basic toolkit for an HR person and are assumed skills if you have any experience in the field, a certification (and likely both since you need experience to get certified). HR is a broad field unto itself. I have colleagues who work with Workers Compensation who never work with any other area. If they leave us, they will likely go to administer a WC program elsewhere. So their professional needs are different from an HR Business Partner (who handles many of the above listed activities and concepts). Likewise, a benefits specialist needs to know the ins and outs of benefit plans, ERISA, funding models and other related topics but really doesn't need to have much expertise with ADA accommodations. There are many, many jobs other than HR Director and some organizations have very large departments with multiple directors all handling specialized areas.
