Recruiter Hiring Is Down

Recruiter jobs are up. Recruiter hiring is down. 2022. What a time to be alive.

We’re pretty transparent about numbers. By volume, internal recruiter hiring is the #2 most frequently filled position in any given year. Right after software developers.

2021 – We averaged 25 internal recruiter hires per quarter.

2022 – We placed 15 in Q1.

Is demand stabilizing? Nope. Openings are 3x what they were in Q1 2021. And still 10% over Q4 2021.

So what’s happening? It’s getting harder, for 2 reasons:

1. Recruiters already made the big money move.

Recruiter salaries increased by 30% over the last year. Anyone who had a chance to make that big jump, already did.

So that by itself isn’t going to do it. Salaries are stabilizing, which reduces the “active” supply side of the equation.

2. Demand is so high, the total supply of experienced recruiters can’t keep up.

Never thought I’d see this: recruiting looks like software engineering. The needs of companies are so high, they far exceed the current experienced talent pool.

What can be done?

????Leverage external partners.

Yeah, I’m the external agency guy saying to use external agencies. Shocker. 

But this is the reality of it. If you favor building your internal team but can’t hire, take a look at an OnDemand type recruiting solution. (Like ours. Plug 1.)

????Invest in technology that will make your current team more efficient.

Do more with less, but in an intelligent way. Perhaps a self-service hiring platform like Rainmakers. (Yup, that’s plug 2.)

????Pay even more still.

Salaries are getting out of hand at this point. But if you got the cash…

????Train and grow your own team from scratch.

There comes a time when you have to do it yourself. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if we start to see recruiter boot camps pop up. (Hit me up if you hear of any good ones.)

James Hornick

Partner at Hirewell. #3 Ranked Sarcastic Commenter on LinkedIn.