Believe it or not, the fourth quarter of 2011 is almost upon us. According to the conversations that I’ve had with recruiters over the first nine months of the year, it’s been a mixed bag for the recruiting industry.
Some recruiters are doing quite well and some are seeing their businesses grow, but then again, some are not. There are a lot of different factors involved, and any recovery that the economy might be experiencing is certainly not consistent across all industries or niches.
How well the industry is doing really depends upon . . . who you talk to. That’s why we decided to conduct a poll of recruiters from all across the country about their thoughts regarding the health of the economy and the recruiting industry specifically during the remainder of this year.
Who better to assess what’s going on than the people who are in the trenches day in and day out, talking with hiring authorities and doing their best to place as many candidates as they possibly can?
As part of the poll that we conducted, below is the question we posed:
With the fourth quarter of the year quickly approaching, how do you believe it will compare to the first three quarters of 2011?
The choice of answers that we provided is listed below, along with the percentage of recruiters who selected each one:
- It will be much better—28.0%
- Slightly better—24.0%
- More of the same—24.0%
- Slightly worse—18.7%
- Much worse—5.3%
As you can see by the results, recruiters are generally optimistic about the fourth quarter of this year, although it’s close to being dead-even for and against. Over half of those who participated in the poll (52.0%) indicated that the fourth quarter will be either “much better” or “slightly better” than the first three quarters. It’s worth noting that the most popular response was, “It will be much better,” at 28.0%.
On the flip side of the equation, 48.0% of respondents indicated they believe that the fourth quarter will be “more of the same,” “slightly worse,” or “much worse” than the first three quarters. So even though a slight majority of recruiters are optimistic about the immediate future, nearly the same amount is more downbeat about the prospects that lie ahead.
So I pose the question to YOU. What are your thoughts about the fourth quarter of the year? How do you believe it will stack up to the first three? Are you in position to bill more during the fourth quarter? The same? Less? As always, your feedback is very much appreciated.