A 119% increase in job orders

The world isn’t ending

In January, Hirewell’s new job orders were up 119% from December.

52% from November. And 33% from October. (Yes I led with 119% for clickbait reasons. We all know December is the slowest month of the year anyway.)

It’s the highest they’ve been since May 2022 (the same amount). But a 19% decline compared to January 2022. (Which was close to the peak. Arguably a bubble.)

Great for us. What does this mean for everyone else?

👉Recruiting firm rec load isn’t a sign of the total hiring demand, but it is an indicator of urgent demand.

Our services come at a premium (literally the business model.)

Companies use us when things are:

1. Urgent. Gotta be filled now.
2. Difficult. Niche roles that need extra specialization that may not exist in house.
3. High volume. More than they can handle internally.

Great for us. But something everyone wants to see for the health of the job market. 

Granted, there’s some gaps in this data:

👉We’re one firm. I have no idea what any other recruiting firm saw in January.

Hopefully the same. But we may be an outlier. 

👉We doubled down on BD efforts, so there’s some skew in the numbers.

It’s not apples to apples with the previous data. We ramped sales efforts significantly in the last couple months of 2022.

👉We recruit in 8 separate skill areas. The total combined doesn’t imply they’re all coming back at the same rate.

Technology, HR, Marketing, Sales, Finance & Account, Supply Chain, Insurance and Real Estate. (The obligatory not-so-subtle plug of what we do.)

Yes, I can break it down. Yes, I will do it next week. (A teaser, as the kids call it.)

👉Today’s takeaway: while layoffs keep happening, urgent hiring is definitely coming back.

There’s your good news for the week. 

James Hornick

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