Special Report: Hiring – Recruiting Continues

The job of a hiring or staffing firm professional is not the same as it was a few short years ago.

Unprecedented events, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and increased layoffs in many sectors of the economy last year, have changed the hiring market and thus the role and responsibilities of a recruiter. Effects of these changes varied across industries for staffing firms, and companies are approaching hiring new employees in different ways.

Across the board, recruiters generally saw job searches pause or slow in 2020. Then, beginning in 2021, employees in many different sectors left their jobs en masse in what became known as the “Great Resignation.” This continued into 2022 and, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, a record 51 million Americans quit their jobs last year.

Talent-acquisition firms in technology, real estate and finance all described an enormous boom in job-search activity in the last two years. This year has been more of a mixed bag, with real estate seeing an increased hiring demand while interest in technology talent dropped off.

Some firms are tightening their reins and hunkering through a phase of slow business, looking ahead in the hopes that job recruitment picks back up this year. Others never slowed down and are seeing the busiest year or quarter of their careers.

Overall, the rate of job creation in Los Angeles has slowed over the last year. According to the California Employment Development Department, nonfarm employment increased by 7.8% between February 2021 and February 2022. However, from February 2022 and February 2023, it increased by only 2.3%.

This trend is not unique to California. The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced this month that total nonfarm employment increased by 236,000 in March, while the average over the last six months had been 334,000 per month.