Some stories just make you want to flop back in your seat and be thankful that you are living in China.

Yesterday, as it happens, the New York Times had such as story. It concerned Recruiters in Silicon Valley who have been ‘hammered’ by the current recession. They have recently been laid off, but are well-qualified, experienced HR staffers who probably never expected to be in this position. They simply cannot find a new position because no one wants what they have spent the last 10 years doing: hiring the right people in a professional manner.

The contrast in China could not be more stark. Most of the Recruiters in China are not contractors, and the biggest challenge that they have right now is that their workday has been turned around a bit. Few have lost their jobs. The environment that they work in is not great but there is no existential threat.

The exception of course is automotive.

Local Recruiters are suffering from an in-house travel and hiring freeze that idles the hiring department, thus causing some to move across to other departments. But at least they still have a full-time, permanent-contract job.

Anecdotal evidence indicates that a few companies are beginning to end the hiring freeze, not necessarily completely, but there is definitely an easing of pressure, and some light at the end of the tunnel. This means that those who have been idled will have work again, and those who have been moved to payroll or administration might be moved back.

Work, Work, Work

For some though, there is the stress of additional workload, and this is not ‘working out’ so well. Some companies have split their job requisitions in to senior, middle level and junior. For the junior or middle positions the new rule is that the position cannot be handed out to recruitment companies, and has to be done by the Recruiter themselves. For some small companies the use of external recruitment companies is Verboten! (Forbidden).

This will be a new situation for many of these Recruiters as they will no longer be able to sit and wait for  Resumes to arrive in their email. They actually have to do the job for which they were hired, but never trained. They generally are not particularly well connected, and will have difficulty when they need to find a job for themselves.

The big downside possibility is that China Recruiters may soon be in the same situation as US Recruiters. China is the end of the line when it comes to the production of goods and services. Components get made in Germany, Japan, Taiwan and so on; are then shipped to China for final assembly; and then exported to the US or the EU. Admittedly, China’s export drop last month was lower than these three countries but the big drop could well just be delayed because of China’s position in the supply chain.

For the sake of all those  Chinese Recruiters who sat and waited for Resumes, I hope I am wrong. When they apply for a new job, their new employer is likely to be a little ‘fussy’ about their ability to independently generate candidates for a new role.