Contract employment on rise in 'brutal' job market

The battle that companies are waging to find qualified employees is intensifying, and the competition for scant prospects is forcing many companies to employ new tactics to fill their needs, according to a release from Manpower Inc.

"The job market is brutal right now, and there's a chance it could get worse before it gets better," said William Pfannenstiel, vice president of Manpower Professional, the unit of Manpower Inc. that focuses on professional services, including telecommunications, information technology, engineering, science and finance.

"Companies are casting bigger nets and using bigger lures to fill jobs that once had multiple candidates."

The Labor Department announced that the 260,000 Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits is the least number of people filing since 1973. Economists consider anything below 300,000 to be a sign of a tight labor market.

"The effects on companies are dramatic," Pfannenstiel said. "Signing bonuses are becoming much more common. In some industries, such as telecommunications and (information technology), we are conducting global searches to fill positions. National searches are the routine."

Manpower recently helped recruit several hundred telecom engineers for a massive job in Brazil, and it has filled individual engineering positions in Korea and telecom/networking jobs in Egypt with candidates from the United States.

Pfannenstiel said there are risks of hiring under pressure. "There are a number of challenges to hiring a candidate in this kind of job market," he said. "First, you're probably competing with other offers, so there's pressure to decide fast on a candidate. Second, if the individual doesn't work out, it's costly and time-consuming to start the search over again.

For that reason, Pfannenstiel said, he sees more companies looking at contract employees as an option, as this allows the company to see the individual in action before making a long-term commitment.

"We receive 60,000 resumes each month from professionals interested in pursuing contract employment and the flexibility it offers," Pfannenstiel said. "Just as more professionals are trying contract employment, we expect that more companies will rethink the way they attract candidates in order to procure the skills they need."