In my previous blog post, I discussed good news that resulted from a recent Top Echelon Network Preferred Membership recruiter poll. And I’ve got more good news from another recent poll.
This one gets down to business when it comes to how recruiters are faring in current economic conditions. In short, it deals with how much recruiters billed last year as compared to the year before. The question we posed in this poll is listed below:
How do your overall billings for 2010 compare with 2009?
The results were very encouraging, even more so than we thought they would be. After all, the economic recovery has been a slow one. Steady, to be sure, but also slow. But once again, the vast majority of responses carried with them a positive connotation. We offered five choices to recruiters for the question above. Those choices were as follows:
- Significantly better
- Better
- The same
- Worse
- Significantly worse
Over two-thirds of those recruiters who participated in the poll indicated that their billings for 2010 had improved over 2009. Specifically, about 36% stated that their billings were significantly better, while nearly 30% indicated that their billings were simply better.
In addition, nearly 15% of recruiters voted that their billings were the same in 2010 as they were in 2009. At the other end of the spectrum, the same percentage of recruiters (approximately 10%) indicated that their billings were worse in 2010 or significantly worse.
More than likely, this is one of the main reasons that recruiter optimism is on the rise. When recruiters bill more, they’re usually more optimistic about the future. I’d be willing to bet that the majority of recruiters who participated in this poll believe that their billings in 2011 will be greater than their billings in 2010 . . . and that includes the recruiters who didn’t see an increase in their billings last year.
So what’s your take? How were your billings in 2010 as compared to 2009? Were they significantly better, better, the same, worse, or significantly worse? And how does your answer impact your outlook for 2011? Are you more optimistic or more pessimistic? Please explain your answer. (Ignore that last one. I just threw that in because I hated when my high school and college essay questions ended with that phrase.)
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(Matt Deutsch, the Communications Coordinator at Top Echelon, is a regular contributor to the Top Echelon Recruiter Training Blog.)