September 2009 Demand For Staffing Professional Hiring Survey
The September 2009 Demand For Staffing Professionals Hiring Survey (DSPHS) is an Internet-based survey that seeks to measure labor trends related to Staffing Professionals in U.S. companies—both corporate recruiting departments and 3rd party staffing firms--covering issues such as current demand for Staffing Professionals and anticipated demand for Staffing Professionals. To find out about the trends, JobsInStaffing invited managers who oversee the hiring of Staffing Professionals to report on trends in their company. Approximately 225 persons responded on behalf of staffing companies and internal corporate recruiting departments. Although our pool of respondents are highly diverse in terms of size, the similarity of responses across participants with different economic interests and perspectives suggests that they are all reporting on Staffing Professional-related labor realities in a relatively unbiased way. As a broad summary statement, the DSPHS shows that demand for Staffing Professionals is very high and the labor pool should shrink in the near term.
Respondent Profile
the approximately 225 respondents, the majority (76%) was comprised of managers who oversee Staffing Professionals in 3rd party recruiting firms. The remaining twenty four percent of the respondents comprise managers from internal corporate recruiting departments as follows:
Current Demand for Staffing Professionals
Given the state of the economy, it is somewhat encouraging to learn that as of September 2009, Staffing Professionals are in high demand with 43% of the total respondents indicating that they are currently looking to add Staffing Professionals to their organization. In fact, almost one-half (46%) of the 3rd party staffing firms reported that they currently have a need for staffing professionals while almost one-third (32%) of the internal corporate recruiting departments reported having open recruitment positions.
Reason For Open Staff Positions
Of the companies that reported that they currently have open positions, twenty nine percent (29%) of the respondents cited attrition as the reason for the open positions while twenty four percent (24%) of the respondents cited growth (or increased demand for recruitment services) as the primary reason for the open position. The remaining forty seven percent (47%) reported that they had multiple open positions due to a combination of factors including both attrition and growth.
Near-Term Demand For Staffing Professionals
Of the companies that reported no current open positions for staffing professionals, 29% anticipate that they will have an open position within the next 90 days. Therefore, three fifths of the respondent companies, or 60%, report that they currently have an open position or anticipate an open position within the next 90 days while only 2% anticipate a staff size reduction in the next 90 days.
Summary
The demand for Staffing Professionals is very high as nearly half of the respondents report current demand while a nearly 1 out of every 3 companies that does not currently have an open position anticipates a need within the next 90 days. Should these trends continue, Staffing Professionals should anticipate strong demand for their services while companies and hiring managers will likely experience a shrinking candidate pool, greater competition for highly-skilled Staffing Professionals, and, ultimately, longer hiring cycles.