Following a slump towards the end of last year and the first quarter of 2002 due to the world economic slowdown, Abacus Recruitment, a Pretoria-based IT recruiting firm, has announced a 100% increase in staff placements during Q2, suggesting that bad times are over for the recruiting industry.
Org Geldenhuys, a director of Abacus, said: "I don`t think we are the only recruitment company to experience this welcomed buoyancy. It appears that recruitment agencies in general are enjoying an economic resurgence."
He said late last year the market was "flooded" by CVs from personnel of some of the well-known IT companies, including one of the biggest JSE Securities Exchange-listed IT vendors. "Suddenly there are literally no CVs out in the marketplace from this particular company, signalling that the larger IT companies have perhaps weathered the storm and are busy digging themselves in, or are trading with confidence going forward.
"While confidence in the US corporate market has received quite a bashing due to the Enron and WorldCom fiasco, these events have not spilled over into SA, like the 11 September terror attacks on the World Trade Centre did. Despite the financial crash of WorldCom, UUNet, one of SA`s biggest Internet service providers, seems to be unaffected - even though they are a subsidiary of WorldCom. We haven`t seen a single CV from any of their staff doing the rounds. That`s a good sign. I do believe, however, that too many companies are continuing to blame financial woes on the 11 September attacks when, in fact, there are actually other reasons - such as inefficient operations or bad management. The same happened with the Y2K issue - companies were blaming Y2K for the red ink appearing on their balance sheets long after the Y2K issue was put to bed."
Share
Editorial contacts