The Unemployment Paradox

Since Jan. 1, it's been quite evident that the slowdown has hit, even in HIT (Healthcare Information Technology). Although evidently not as bad as elsewhere, hiring has slowed down in the HIT sector, though that might reverse itself abruptly later this year or next, if the healthcare technology spending package proceeds.

One of the ironies of the current market is that in spite of the significantly greater number of candidates that seem to be available recently, filling perm positions is as difficult, if not more difficult, than previously.

Several factors seem to be contributing to this:

1) Many of the new candidates are consultants and contractors who have been benched or cut loose from their assignments or firms and are, at least initially, still looking primarily for new consulting or contract roles. This can change over time, and I've seen a few cases already, of those folks looking for the security of a full-time facility based position and willing to give up some of their income expectations in return.

2) Those candidates who have been downsized from perm facilities roles, have generally expressed a desire to stay put, and find another local position. Again, these attitudes can change over time as it sometimes takes a while for the realization to kick in that they might have to adjust their expectations or face a very long job search. At the moment we're only 3-6 months into the downturn, and the majority of the candidates have only been on the market since Jan. 1 or later.

The above 2 factors are pretty much standard, and we run into them in every market; consultants generally want to be consultants - travel, but not move. And perm employees want to stay put and not move or travel.

A couple of new factors:

3) The housing market; those that might be considering a move are understandably dubious about their ability to sell their house even if they find a new opportunity and location they like. No one wants to be faced with the financial burden of unintentionally carrying two homes for an extended period.

4) Maybe the least obvious; the psychology has changed. In an upbeat market, people are more confident in general, which promotes more of risk-taking mentality. They are confident of being able to sell their home, and perhaps even more importantly, they don't see taking a new position as being as high of a risk as they do now. If someone takes a new position now, moves to a new location, buys a new house (even if they sell their old one), if they end up not liking the new job, new location, whatever, they perceive their ability to up and move again, and find another new job to be much lower. They may be stuck there.

Why am I sharing this? It may seem counter-productive for a recruiter to be acknowledging the challenges. My point is that it makes it all the more important for the recruiter to work harder, dig deeper, and find the right candidates with right motivations. Recruiting passive candidates has gotten much more difficult recently; the new opportunity now has to be even more of an opportunity than before. Frankly, I also think the focus has shifted more from a focus on the job (money, position, growth, etc) to stability, security, lifestyle, family.

Right now I'm still trying to find those who really want to move. The realization for some that they have to move is going to come soon, and we will find ourselves spending more time working with those motivated by necessity than dreams, before much longer.