Tis the season for lots of client meetings. This is the perfect opportunity with the economy slow, for one of my favorite things.. eating!! And I hate to eat alone so it's been raining client lunches! I usually keep them social and keep business talk to a minimum. However, since this has come up more than once now, I thought I'd just talk about it here.

The number one question on everyone's lips to us in the staffing world seems to be, "What are you seeing out there?"

I won't lie.

It's tough.
It's ugly.
It's slow.

But what it isn't, is dead. There's still some life in our ol' economy just yet.. although the pulse is faint, it's still breathing! I can say this with certainty because I received my 401K statement yesterday and believe it... it made money! (it was only about $23 but still.. I was so shocked, I had to sit down!) It's just one of the little triggers I'm seeing that the ignition in economy engine is turning over. In the staffing world, we are busy with contract work. As I've mentioned in the past, there's still work to be done and you need hands and brains (hopefully) to do it. It seems, as the fear is finally lifting, so are budget restrictions on projects that have been sitting idle since last year. We have calls starting to trickle in with project needs, which is a VERY promising sign!

Unemployment is always the last to recover in a recession and with it, staffing. You'll continue to see the unemployment rate rise and hear of more layoffs. Companies will hold off on hiring until they feel confident that the economy is more stabilized. But fear not, the layoffs are indeed slowing down and unemployment rate, although rising, is not going up as fast as was originally indicated. It can't rain all of the time!

So even though I've answered the #1 question here, I'm still accepting lunch invitations. Next week is booked, but I have some availability the week after...

Have a great night!