Jeff Altman - The Big Game Hunter

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter and His Views on The Job Market September, 2010

I have been blogging about the job market since August, 2001, right before the attacks on the World Trade Center. In my almost 40 years of recruiting, I have seen good times, bad times, great times and horrible times.

With few exceptions, the media never talks to anyone in the recruiting business about the job market when they do their stories about the labor market in the private sector. They talk with one another; they talk with financial analysts who don't talk with people who do recruiting (with the exception of the President of Adecco who makes regular appearances in CNBC. It is no wonder that the reporting on the job market is so "off?"

All of can see with our own billings that the job market has been getting stronger. Firms are hiring again and the companies that are hiring are in almost every business sector.

Why are the numbers so small (only 67000 private sector jobs created)? Well some months they add in jobs created by small businesses that they cannot prove exist and cannot prove hired anyone but they think did. Some months, these same businesses lay people off (and, yes, they cannot prove these businesses were created or laid people off).

I other words, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is, as always, making things up based upon a broken model of how the labor market works without consulting with the very people who have their pulse on hiring--recruiters.

Why are recruiters filling jobs again? Easy.

Companies cannot find enough people with the required skills willing to work at the price they are willing to pay (a price that, in some cases is equal to or greater than the price they were willing to pay in 2008 for the same type of person.

The real story is about a shortfall in the skilled labor market, the degree to which unemployed job applicants sabotage their chances of obtaining employment with stupid answers to basic interview questions, and firms being willing to pay for recruiting services.

That's the story of the job market.

Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

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The Job Market, Employment, layoffs, The Job Market USA, The Job Market Report