(Continued from home page)

Bullhorn Magazine (www.bullhorn.com) this week published an interesting survey of recruiting trends titled “Recovery:  Are We There Yet?”  According to Bullhorn, 60% of recruiters surveyed said business has already improved or would improve before the end of 2009.  A further 22% believes business will pick up by the end of Q1, 2010.  These optimists were found across the entire recruiting spectrum, including firms that have not see increased profit and revenue in 2009. Since activity (or lack of it) in the recruiting industry frequently forecasts the movement of the larger economy, these opinions are significant for more than recruiters.

However, here at Ground Zero in Silicon Valley, it still feels pretty wintry.  Vacant office complexes sit behind big ‘For Lease.  Move-in Special’ signs.  Upscale malls are empty, the Savers shopping aisles are full.  A number of my friends are unemployed, been looking a long time and some seem past the point of economic resuscitation.  Client inquiries to our firm over the summer have turned into jobs with very very long pregnancies in the Fall as hiring managers balance urgent needs for key hires with anemic company sales, strung-out customer payments and uncertainty how soon and how fast business will improve.  The divided political mood in the U.S. adds fuel to the sense that the economy and political will have not come together yet in a way that will lead us forward in a sense of unified confidence in where we are going. 

But isn’t this how it always is?  In the words of novelist Charles Dickens (Oliver Twist, David Copperfield):

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way."

Best Wishes,

Ken Reed
President