Are you starting to make money in recruitment again? I don’t mean the nickels and dimes, I mean are you starting to make some serious money that you made earlier in this decade? If not then, maybe you should see how to reposition yourself.
The first thing you should do when repositioning yourself is understand where the economy is heading and what the economy will demand in the coming quarters. One of the best resources for recruiters who want to follow recruitment trends is the Monster Employment Index. This is a real-time review of millions of employer job opportunities gathered from career sites and job boards, and presents a snapshot of employer online recruitment activity nationwide. It is interesting to note that in October the Employment Index rose to 120 from 119 in September, however to keep things in perspective, it is important to note that the Employment Index stood at 152 a year ago.

Our research desk reports that the economy is demanding new recruits in the healthcare, education, and the public sector. Our research desk continues to urge recruiters to focus on building pools of applicants for the healthcare and social assistance industries as we predict that these areas will continue to show recruitment demand in Q1 and Q2 of 2010. We are also predicting a very strong need for technology recruits because Web 3.0 has gained a lot of momentum during the recession, and a lot of the companies that miscalculated their competitors move towards Web 3.0 will be rushing to maintain a competitive edge and hire project managers, business analysts, programmers and QA positions.

As the economy inches toward recovery, our research desk is not expecting to see any movement in the hospitality, retail, construction and manufacturing sector just yet. This is because consumer spending power is at a 25 year low and is discouraging the sale of large ticket items.

Smart recruiting companies use this type data to position themselves to be profitable even in a down market. Our research desk noted the Q4 profits of Hewitt soar amid the recession. Hewitt, a human resource consulting firm saw its Q4 EPS at $0.68 vs $0.32 a year ago. Hewitt was able to accomplish this by lowering their operating expenses, and repositioning its hiring strategy.

Another smart company, Kenexa, is rapidly expanding by studying the market needs and is opening up offices in Argentina. Both Hewitt and Kenexa might be large companies but they are only succeeding because of their continuous research and understanding of the market’s future needs.

If you are looking to become a serious player in recruitment, you should take a step back and evaluate your understanding of the next few quarters and then start positioning yourself accordingly to cash in during this slow recovery period.