Recruiter (United Kingdom) (05/24/12)

Staffing firms are the most effective way for job seekers to find employment—but only 3% of candidates seek them out as their first source for job hunting, according to the results of a new survey by ASA corporate partners CareerBuilder and Inavero. Speaking at the International Confederation of Private Employment Agencies’ World Employment Conference in London, CareerBuilder’s Eric Gilpin called on staffing firms to take advantage of “the huge opportunities” to increase awareness of their brand and services to attract job seekers to their doors. “You’re not where they start [their job search]—but you are the most effective,” said Gilpin, president of CareerBuilder’s staffing and recruiting group. Candidates who engage with staffing firms get 45% more interviews than those who do not, he noted.

Reuters (05/24/12)

Job opportunities in the U.S. are plentiful for those with skills in hot demand, but for most Americans, the country’s once-mobile labor market is steadily becoming more static, according to recent studies. “In the early 1990s about 3% of Americans moved between states each year. Today that rate has fallen in half,” Greg Kaplan, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania, and Sam Schulhofer-Wohl, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, wrote in a recent study. The plunge in housing prices has discouraged people from moving to find work, according to a recent study by economist Plamen Nenov at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

However, companies are hiring, and in many states, housing prices are showing tentative signs of recovery. “People are now starting to feel more confident and have a little bit more flexibility,” says Joanie Ruge, chief employment analyst for the U.S. arm of staffing group Randstad. She notes that companies are more likely than in recent years to sweeten job offers with relocation packages for skilled workers, especially in states with booming energy or technology sectors, such as Texas and California.

Fox Business (05/23/12) Kathryn Tuggle

The number of employers hiring summer workers is expected to rise to 29% this year from 22% during the 2008-11 period, according to CareerBuilder, an ASA corporate partner. The job market remains competitive, with Brent Rasmussen, president of CareerBuilder North America, noting, “High school students are not only competing with college students for summer positions, they’re also competing with very seasoned workers who are looking for a way to get their foot in the door and transition to full-time, permanent employment.” Rasmussen says production line associates, warehouse assistants, sales clerks, customer service representatives, finance interns, engineers, and information technology specialists are among the jobs available this year.

Wanted Analytics (05/24/12) Abby Lombardi

Recruiting through mobile and text is expected to grow this year. In April, more than 200 recruiting jobs advertised online included mobile aspects in the job descriptions. Some jobs required recruiting professionals to recruit via mobile phone, while other jobs sought recruiting professionals to develop or maintain a mobile-friendly online career center for applicants. The number of companies looking for recruiters with these skills is growing faster than the number of candidates with the skills.