Recruitment prospects in economic downturn: will there be a downturn in jobs for information workers?

Abstract

The Managing Director of Sue Hill Recruitment & Services, a UK specialist recruitment consultancy within the information field, reviews the trends in the information industry, particularly during 2001, with a view to determining whether the economic conditions in the UK will impact on the number of jobs available for librarians and information professionals in the corporate library and information sector. A major problem lies not in fears of economic recession but in clearly defined changes in the recruitment patterns of organizations across all sectors traceable back to Spring 2001, when firms in the banking/ financial/consultancy sector tightened up on permanent recruitment. This was due to the great difficulty experienced in recruiting good quality staff in the information sector over a two-year period. The major reason for this shortfall is the rapid expansion of the information industry and the inability of the number of information professionals to keep pace with the demand. An examination of the fluctuation in information unit size and recent recruitment activity within the commercial and business markets shows: little reduction in team numbers in the majority of firms; new jobs in budget for 2002 are mostly on hold; recruitment of replacement staff is frozen in the majority of firms; team size is holding steady where considered or steady growth had taken place; team sizes have returned to that of 18 months previously where rapid or uncontrolled growth was encountered; and salary levels for the majority are unchanged save for inflation related increases. Concludes with recommendations for strategies to be adopted when recruiting staff or when being recruited.