Well, if you’re a recruiter or a recruiter-hopeful, you’re in business — literally.
Despite concerns that there would not be enough job openings in which to place the swarm of job-seeking candidates, recruiter careers are doing very well right now and are expected to grow steadily.
The US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Occupational Outlook Handbook projects that employment, recruitment, and placement specialists will experience a ''faster than average'' job growth spurt in the next eight years, with about an 18% rate of growth.
Recruiters who have varied industry foci seem to be surviving well, as the diversity in their business is a huge saving grace.
''Our business is so diverse that we balance out when the economy fluctu¬ates,'' Darren McDougal, partner of marketing communications at Kaye/Bassman International Corp., told DMNews.
Kaye/Bassman primarily focuses on recruiting for six industries: consumer goods and services, financial services, indus¬trial, professional services, healthcare and life sciences, and military.
Luckily, the company ditched residential construction recruit¬ing almost two years ago, so they were able to resist some of the recent economic hardship.
Another reason the recruiting industry is strong during this time of recession is the fact that many Baby Boomers (those who were born between 1946 and 1964) are beginning to retire, leaving quite a few job openings behind. This means that employers will be very eager to hire within the next decade or so.
Phil Gardner, director of the Collegiate Employment Research Institute, told the Chicago Tribune that ''unless the economy completely collapses,'' large companies will hire aggressively for the next several years to prepare for all the upcoming Baby Boomer retirements.
''They have to replace the Boomers,'' Gardner said. ''They need three to four years to get them ready for when positions open.''
Steven Rothberg, president and founder of CollegeRecruiter.com, an Internet job board that works with employers who are trying to hire students for internships and recent college gradu¬ates for entry-level jobs, also told DMNews that Generation X professionals will not have to worry about prolonged and desperate job searches because of the Baby Boomer retirement wave.
''There are still a lot of Baby Boomers approaching retirement, and there are not nearly enough Gen X-ers to replace them,'' Rothberg said. ''Gen Y recruiting right now is what I would call ‘recession resistant,’'' he said.
