by Gege Tan and Sanja Pesich on Jun 28, 2022
by Gege Tan and Sanja Pesich on Jun 28, 2022
We have been recently inundated in the news with reports of hiring freezes and layoffs in the US IT sector. According to Business Insider, "business growth is slowing, while labor costs are increasing. The combination is causing American companies across a variety of industries to slash headcount."
As a global company, we like to inspect the situation in a holistic way. That is why we organized a webinar in June with our IntelliPro's leaders, Edwin Chang and Sultan Khan, to discuss the current job market trends. Edwin Chang is IntelliPro's Head of Global Talent Development responsible for attracting and training the best talent. Under Chang's guidance, our IntelliPro recruiting team doubled within a year. Sultan Khan is IntelliPro's Global Account Director with extensive experience in Information Technology and Services, Blockchain and CryptoCurrency, Autonomous Vehicles and Electric Vehicles, Finance/Capital Markets, and Engineering industries. Khan has supported the largest IntelliPro's business accounts including Forbes 500 companies as well as up-and-coming startup companies. Both Chang and Khan are based in Canada.
Hiring freezes and layoffs have been haunting the U.S. job market, but Khan says he has observed opposing trends. On the one hand, according to U.S. Labor Statistics, this April's national unemployment rate at 3.6% was 2.4% points lower than the rate in April of 2021. On the other hand, 15,000 tech workers in the U.S. lost their jobs in May (Mascarenhas & Silberling, 2022). Khan agrees with reports published by Forbes that tech companies may be facing a correction. C-executives are cutting back on hiring as a way to "adjust to the new circumstances." Khans adds that once the situation gets more stable again, we may see a recovery in the job market.
Both Khan and Chang remark on how IntelliPro continues to meet some very unique needs of truly innovative clients and how IntelliPro recruiters continue to fill demanding roles. IntelliPro's huge advantage is in its proprietary technology and fast retrieval of data with high accuracy. Moreover, IntelliPro's flat structure enables a fast exchange of information; it also helps that everyone works very collaboratively and supports each other with resources and advice. The culture of collaboration extends to the relationships IntelliPro cultivates with clients. "Our clients are also very open and they have so far not been sharing news that is super alarming," says Khan. He adds that IntelliPro never stopped adding new clients: "just a couple of days ago, we signed a deal with another Fortune 500 client."
While the U.S. job market seems to be experiencing a slowdown, Chang points that several indicators show that the Canadian market continues to grow. In fact, Canada's unemployment rate had just hit a record low of 5.1% this month (Thevenot, 2022). According to the StatsCan’s Labour Force Survey "employment in professional, scientific and technical services increased faster than in the economy as a whole." Another source shows that Canada added a whopping 337,000 new jobs in February (Boorman, 2022).
Although the trend used to be that U.S. companies would hire candidates in Canada with earning salaries below the U.S. market, Chang points out that the Canadian candidates are becoming aware of the gap and demand a higher compensation. This is a situation in which getting help from skilled recruiters is critical. They step in and help candidates negotiate for the most favorable package.
This is not the first time IntelliPro has witnessed a slowdown in the job market. It’s important to note that during the past few volatile years, IntelliPro not only survived but thrived and experienced an amazing growth. Chang attributes this success to two things: technology and IntelliPro's extraordinary culture. IntelliPro's proprietary software has been what backs up the global recruiting team helping them pinpoint the right candidate to the right client, but it is the unique culture of the company committed to clients' and candidates' success that drives progress. "We are always people-centric first, we never just talk to a candidate and ignore them as soon as they're not the right fit," says Chang. "We build partnerships and sincerely listen to the needs of both our candidates and clients, " adds Chang.
Equally critical are strategic partnerships with clients. For example, Khan explains how in 2021 the IntelliPro team helped a company which was experiencing layoffs while at the same time they were looking to hire the right talent to stay competitive. Khan helped the company's executives re-evaluate their priorities and establish a sound strategy. With a better strategy in place, IntelliPro's team of recruiters attracted the right talent and helped the client recover and reach important production milestones.
CIC News. “Canada Unemployment Rate Down to Record Low”. https://www.cicnews.com/2022/06/canadas-unemployment-rate-down-to-record-low-5-1-0626190.html
TechCrunch.” Tech Layoffs Top 15K in a Brutal May.” https://techcrunch.com/2022/05/27/tech-layoffs-top-15k-employees-in-a-brutal-may/
Forbes. “Be Prepared for Hiring Freezes and Layoffs.” https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2022/05/10/be-prepared-for-hiring-freezes-and-layoffs/?sh=1dc7f583c97e
CanadaIM. “Canada Adds 337,000 Jobs in February 2022.” https://www.canadim.com/news/canada-adds-337000-jobs-in-february-2022/
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “June 2022: State Employment and Unemployment Summary.” https://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm