Why Recruiters Are Losing Their Jobs Like Crazy
Recruiters are losing their jobs like crazy, which could be an indicator of a serious economic disaster brewing.
This article is more than 2 years old
Recruiting was THE field to get into in 2021. Recruiting jobs were plentiful and salaries were generally on the higher end. However, a sudden market shift has suddenly sparked an abrupt about-face. Just months prior recruiters were being highly sought after by top-tier companies, now they are losing their jobs like crazy.
On the surface, the fact that recruiters are losing their jobs faster than one can even utter their title comes across as a little odd. This is especially true considering the robust job market that US residents are currently enjoying. Unemployment is currently hovering at a historic low of just 3.6%. At this superficial level, it doesn’t make sense why recruiters would be having trouble holding onto their jobs. However, upon closer inspection, it makes complete sense. And the fact that it’s happening could be a foreshadowing that a larger labor market trend is on the cusp of emerging.
To understand why recruiters are losing their jobs at such staggering rates. It’s first important to understand why just a few short months ago they were in such high demand. The pandemic served to usher in a period where workers, with fresh perspectives, were leaving their jobs in record numbers in search of better opportunities. This served to create massive holes in the staff of many companies. To fill the gaps promptly, recruiters were hired. Since this problem was industry-wide, recruiters quickly became a hot commodity. Additionally, at a time when staffing was at its lowest, many companies were also seeing immense growth. This made hiring recruiters even more advantageous for many. Recruiters could not only help to quickly fill staffing gaps, but they could help to hire more employees at an expedited rate.
Fast-forward to the present, and it’s easy to see that circumstances have since changed. Rampant inflation has caused many businesses to see profit losses for the first time in years. Those losses are coupled with heightening fears of an impending recession. These factors have caused companies to react by cutting unnecessary costs as well as to slow or freeze hiring. This has caused many recruiters to suddenly become expendable despite the fact that they were deemed a necessity less than a year ago.
Another factor contributing to the layoffs is likely that many companies that saw immense growth got a little overzealous in their future projections. Former recruiters from e-commerce auto giant Carvana and startup Sendoso said that their companies took on too many employees too fast. “When you ramp too fast, at some point you’re going to hit that brick wall,” lamented a laid-off Carvana recruiter.
While it’s terrible that recruiters are being laid off at such remarkable rates, the entire situation could indicate something even more troublesome. That something is that in the coming months it might just not be recruiters who are losing their jobs, it could be many people in many different fields working for many different companies. If nothing else, it’s clear that a storm is brewing and those with jobs better hold on tight and hope they aren’t swept away by a potential tsunami-sized economic disaster wave.
