Reprinted with permission © 2008 TreeTop Technologies

This year saw some high-profile layoff announcements by technology companies, particularly beginning in the fall. Sun Microsystems said in November it would be laying off as much as 18% of its workforce. HP's integration of Electronic Data Systems into its corporate fold led to a September announcement that 24,600 employees would be let go over the next three years, amounting to about 7.5% of HP employees and almost half of those to come from the U.S. workforce. Yahoo, Dell, eBay and Advanced Micro Devices were also among the big names announcing significant layoffs.

As an article in the November 7-13 issue of Boston Business Journal noted, it's not quite the dot-com bust revisited, but clearly the sagging economy is taking its toll on the tech world, and it is being felt from the big players all the way down to the startups.

But don't count out IT recruiting just yet, even in these tough times. As the BBJ article notes, and as we have assessed at TreeTop Technologies, opportunities remain.

"The tougher the economic situation becomes, the more that companies need to make sure they have the top talent," says TreeTop Technologies' President, Amir Farhi. "More than ever, they are going to need to make sure that they have precisely the right people with the right skills in the right places. IT recruitment firms and hiring managers will undoubtedly be working hard to make sure they can build or identify pools of top professionals."

Another area in which recruiting will be playing a key role is in helping to match up out-of-work IT professionals in suffering IT sectors to jobs in IT markets where growth is still strong or particular types of specialized IT skills are in short supply, such as Web 2.0 development.

"Furthermore, as larger companies shed jobs, they will likely find themselves needing to outsource some work, meaning that smaller firms getting that outsourced work may need to do some hiring, particularly around specialized skill sets," Farhi notes. "The bottom line is that as times get tougher, there will still be clients in need of recruitment and hiring services, and thus places to match up professionals in search of jobs. But clients and candidates are going to be expecting better candidate quality and higher service levels from recruitment firms in these times, which bodes well for firms that had set the bar high even before times got really tough."

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Footnotes: From "View from the TreeTop" Volume 2 Issue 12 December 2008