Recent article on this great topic:

Rick Fecteau runs a chain of automobile dealerships in New Hampshire & Massachusetts. One would think that his dealerships are suffering like many other dealerships during this tough economic time. However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel that is causing his business to hold it’s own and even improve - the availability of top performers from other dealerships that lost their jobs.

Instead of waiting around for the market to turnaround, Rick has taken a proactive stance and has been hiring top talent from other dealerships that have closed. “It would normally be impossible to get these people to leave their old jobs and join other dealerships,” says Rick Fecteau of Port City Nissan/Suzuki & Amesbury Chevrolet. New hires include managers, salesmen, technicians, etc. Once the economy gets back on track, Rick will reap the benefits of hiring talent at this stage. Consider it “Contrarian Hiring.”

GoliathJobs, a popular job board that caters to students, alumni and 50+ job seekers, is seeing these same trends. “Job seekers are certainly registering on the site in massive numbers but we are also seeing employers world-wide using this opportunity to hire the best talent that would normally be hard to source,” says David Mezzapelle, Founder & Director of Marketing.