Our Talent Acquisition Manager has provided her perspective on this:
Recruiting can definitely be used as an economic indicator and not just from a perspective of the Monthly Jobs Report, released from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, on the 1st Friday of every month. As a recruiter working across multiple industries, I have seen a shift in focus from the number of unemployment claims to an increase in open positions. This reflects a severe decline in the number of skilled and experienced candidates to fill these open positions across the economy. The uncertainty of the current political climate has caused a decline in candidate pools across multiple industries, at levels of 65% – 70%, over the last 7 months. Daily, in speaking to large numbers of potential candidates, the mindset is that with the growing uncertainty, candidates who would normally be quite open to new opportunities are holding steady and choosing to stay in current jobs. They do want to be a statistic in the category of “last one in and first one out.”
This means that recruiting effectively to attract qualified candidates is highly important. At the same time, so is thorough screening of those candidates; to be sure they have the real qualifications you need. What we often see in this environment, across our now decades of experience in recruiting, is that candidates who are looking in a tighter market may have reasons they are out of work or looking. When you do have a strong candidate you’re interested in that is already working, you may need to be prepared to discuss your company’s current financial strength, existing growth, or other things that may help ease a concern of changing jobs and then getting laid off.
….AND CANDIDATE SCREENING CAN BE TOUGHER
We have all experienced situations where candidates resume, and interview responses don’t match the actual knowledge and skills once they’re hired. There’s now a new name for that disconnect – Skillfishing – and it’s becoming more common and costly for employers.
Candidates have had resources for years to coach them in polishing interview answers and inflating resumes. But AI tools are increasing the ability to present themselves more favorably. So, it continues to be critical to have a solid screening process that includes situational interview questions based on real situations they will incur in the position and assessments that can get behind the rehearsed interview answers.
