As many of you know, I founded and moderate a Yahoo Group for Contract Recruiters.  It is called ContractRecruiterJobs and is open to all Contract Recruiters, Agencies, and Corporations who employee Contract Recruiters.  There are almost 4,000 members to date and literally daily, job opportunities are posted, or contract Recruiters list there resume looking for new opportunities.

I created the Group to of course help Contract Recruiters and employers find each other.  I was very surprised and pleased to see the Group grow so rapidly and become so effective in helping this talented sector of the Recruiting world.  What has also come from the Group is an awareness or almost barometer of the state of Contract Recruiter opportunities.

Recently, as we hear more and more about economic cutbacks and woes, I have noticed that the Group continues to grow and even more Contract Recruiter opportunities seem to be posted.  So, at first I figured maybe the obvious was happening; that companies were laying off full time recruiters and hiring Contract Recruiters.  But then, as I watched the job postings a little closer, it seemed to indicate that many companies are actually bolstering there existing recruiter staff with additional Contract Recruiters so as to process internal search assignments even more quickly than the past. 

I’d love to hear from you Contract Recruiters who have recently started a new contract or gig on what the circumstances were that drove your employer to add Contract Recruiting staff?  Are you there to bolster the existing recruiting talent or replace it?

Looking forward to a Great 2008 in Contract Recruiting!