San Fernando Valley Business Journal article for Equis:
Is there an upside to the economic downturn? Yes, according to some employers who say that the recession and its effects—layoffs, bankruptcies and rising unemployment—mean that they have a more qualified pool of candidates from which to offer jobs.
Executives of Valley staffing agencies are also noticing this trend.
“I would say that typically this is what you’d expect,” said Carrie Nebens, president of Equis Financial Staffing in Calabasas. “There’s more good people in our particular industry—finance and accounting. I’ve been waiting for this type of thing.”
Nebens believes that this trend means that employers have more of an opportunity to find coveted workers.
“You might be able to get someone you might not be able to attract in a more robust (economic) environment,” she said.
“Employers could be reluctant to bring someone aboard knowing that they’re overqualified with the fear of them leaving and not staying. That’s the flipside,” Milner said.
But Nebens doesn’t view this possibility as a problem. She said that good hiring is always about doing one’s homework. Therefore, a company could take a risk and hire a highly qualified worker if they believe that the person is a good cultural fit and, hence, unlikely to leave. Nebens also believes that employers have a role in making sure that they create a work environment that is enticing enough to dissuade workers from leaving.
The number of companies seeking temporary workers has gone up dramatically, according to Nebens.
“Staffing companies are probably seeing more of a tendency towards temporary and consulting than towards permanent placement, direct hire,” she said. “Our temporary revenues are higher than our direct revenues.”
At Equis, revenues for temporary placements were up 70 percent in 2008 over 2007.
Permanent placement revenues increased as well, but by a mere 12 percent in 2008 over 2007.
Nebens said that companies don’t want to take a chance on hiring fulltime employees because so many industries are experiencing peaks and valleys right now. Accordingly, hiring fulltime employees might prove financially unwise for some businesses. In times when the industry a business is in has slowed down, a fulltime employee might not have enough to do and, thus, the money spent to pay such an employee would be wasted.