As posted on the Minnesota Recruiters group page October 21, 2008

After being a part of many national and local conversations regarding hiring, the economy, and the credit market crisis it seemed to be a good time for me to do a survey of the Minnesota Recruiters group.

The survey is unscientific but does give a good reading on what local corporate, search and consulting firm recruiters are experiencing and how they see the job market into 2009.

SurveyMonkey was used to collect responses. Approximately 1,150 received the survey link. Within a few percentage points the category of recruiter mirrors that of the email list. 338 started and 300 completed the survey between October 8-10, 2008:

Items and thoughts to note:

• Generally it appears that our area and companies are doing better in terms of hiring and optimism than other regions.
• Generally speaking hiring cycles are becoming longer in terms of process, interviews, and back ground checks. Many times the word “deliberate” has been used to suggest companies are being very specific on who they hire.
• Generally speaking most Recruiters say that even if not hiring in an area, if a very talented candidate contacted them there is a good chance they would be hired.
• The Corporate Recruiters who did the survey like the Corporate Recruiters on the email list are 80% in a large company category. It does seem at this time larger companies are feeling the economic issues more than small and mid size companies.
• There are signs from the survey and through conversations that small and mid size companies are continuing to hire at a slightly slower pace. Only a little slow down has been seen with small to mid size companies.
• On a national level conversations are that one need to analyze regions and industries separately as there are many areas of strength and weakness in the economy.
• On our local level this too is seen. Some industries are doing better than others. Saying that there is evidence that at the company level each situation is different. For example, one healthcare company is not hiring IT, Marketing or Recruiter staff but another company down the road is.

Suggestions for the next survey(s) of this kind have been to add:

• Recruiter role as in VP, Manager, Recruiter, Sourcer
• Add 2 categories “Not Hiring” “Staff Reductions”. While the number of those who would have used those terms in their answers for this survey is very small if we continue to see the job market deteriorate then they will be needed in future surveys

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions about the survey please send me an email:

Paul DeBettignies
Co-Founder and Coordinator
Minnesota Recruiters
[email protected]

SURVEY QUESTIONS AND RESULTS

We hired/placed _____ than planned for the 3rd Quarter (July-September):

We plan to hire/place ___ in the 4th Quarter (October-December) compared to the 3rd Quarter:

I am ___ about the job market for the first half of 2009:

I see the most job openings in:

I see the fewest or no job openings in:

I am ___ about my job security: