Job boom fades into shadows
By Jennifer Beauprez
Denver Post Business Writer
April 1, 2001 - For the first time in years, employers - not
job-seekers - are calling the shots. Gone are the days of signing
bonuses, inflated salaries and lavish extras such as free
massages, free cars and weekly shoe shines.
The biggest perk today is simply having a job.
"Things changed on a dime," said Steve Ziegler, director and
founder of ZDS Technology Group, a Denver headhunting firm.
"I've never seen so many resumes out there. The candidates are
falling off trees."
The metro area's unemployment rate is extremely low - hovering
around 2.2 percent. And recruiters and employers say the most
talented workers are still in high demand.
But the influx of laid-off workers has made it tough for people in
marketing and recruiting to find work. The downturn also hit
middle managers and directors who were laid off from Internet,
software and other high-tech companies.
A job hunt that used to take two to three weeks now takes two
to three months. And candidates aren't getting the responses or
the generous offers they'd grown accustomed to - if they get
anything at all, both recruiters and job-seekers say.
Companies don't dangle perks or haggle over job candidates. And
now employees - rather than employers - worry about retention.
"It's back on the employees to keep their jobs," said Lisa Wargo,
marketing director for AmeriTeach, a Lakewood firm that trains
and places technical workers.
"You need to be there on time, and appearance is coming back."
Pressured by investors to turn a profit and cut costs, companies
adopted a more serious tone.
"People have a heightened sense that we're efficient and
productive," said Ralph Armijo, chief executive of Navidec Inc., a
Greenwood Village e-business service company that laid off 44
workers in March. "Now it's back to the basics."
Executives and recruiters say that in some cases employees are
asked to work longer hours. As vacant jobs go unfilled, duties are
spread among fewer people. People get turned down for raises.
One local executive said he asked his top people to take a pay
cut. They did, knowing that any job is better than no job when
there's a chance the economy could fall into a recession.
"I think there's a little bit more loyalty - people aren't as quick to
jump ship and chase the dollar," Wargo said.
As companies clamp down on hiring, job-seekers - rather than
companies - have started offering $1,000 bonuses to recruiters
who find them employment, Ziegler said. Deborah Moulton, human
resource manager at Denver-based eCollege.com Corp., said she
gets six times as many reÚsumeÚs pouring into the e-learning
company as she did last winter, and she can fill a job today in half
the time. Best of all, she rarely haggles over salaries and offers
the company's people as the biggest perk of working there.
"It's nice," Moulton said. "People are more grateful. We have more
candidates and a different attitude."
But the picture isn't as rosy on the other side of the equation.
"I feel sorry for some of these people," Ziegler said. "I don't know
what they're going to do. Some of them may have to make
big-time career changes or take a salary cut."
That may be the case for Spencer Kluesner, the former founder
and CEO of CyberLoan.com. His company shut its doors in
February, forcing him to spend the past two months searching for
a new job as a middle manager in a high-tech firm.
"Anything you see listed online, you're up against 300 to 1,200
people," Kluesner said. "If you're not an exact fit you don't even
hear back from them."
Kluesner, who earned $100,000 as CEO, said he's prepared to take
a 30 percent salary cut to get the job he wants. Not less than six
months ago, Kluesner's search may have been far different.
Metro Denver employers told stories of a tight labor market, where
workers wielded more influence than ever before. To win new
recruits, employers offered - among other incentives - generous
salaries, the promise of stock option riches, flexible work hours,
health club memberships, well-stocked kitchens with food for
every meal. They let people bring their dogs to work, gave out
bonuses for referring new hires, even awarded vacations to top
employees. One company reportedly offered health insurance for
pets.
Salary wars were common; signing bonuses a must.
"We were trying to keep up with the Joneses," said Moulton of
eCollege. "It was costing too much, and the perks were getting
outrageous. You can't keep up with the Joneses if you want to
stay in business."
Some say the job crunch has spread to information technology, or
IT - an area that for the past five years has faced a labor
shortage and had virtually guaranteed job security.
"I haven't seen the IT staffing market this soft since 1993," said
Tom Melaragno, CEO of Compri Consulting, a technical staffing
and consulting company in Denver.
"The reality is that all our clients have an increasing supply of
technical people to choose from and are being very selective in
who they hire," Melaragno said. "Now salaries are more realistic,
stock options are worthless, and people have to earn their keep."
Demand remains for software programmers and other "hands-on"
technical workers. But the market change has hurt the outlook for
IT managers.
It's not all doom and gloom, Melaragno said, but there's a lot of
people on the street.
Sheldon Gregory is one of those people. The 56-year-old IT
director has been aggressively searching for a job since Feb. 2,
when he was laid off from Q Strategies, an e-commerce firm with
offices in Denver. Gregory said he spends most of every day
networking and job hunting. He applied for several managerial
positions and has yet to hear back from any of the employers.
Never in his 29-year career in computers has he been without
work this long.
"I've always been recruited away from every job I've had,"
Gregory said. "It's frustrating, and it's disappointing. Sometimes
there's some fear that I'll never find a job in IT again, or I'll have
to step out of the box and try something new."
Luckily, Gregory's wife has a stable career and they have a cash
reserve. But if he doesn't land a job soon, he may have to sell a
car, downsize his house or take a lower-level job - even if it's
"being the cart boy at WalMart" just to get back to work.
"It's hard to be out of work without any word that the economy
isn't going to turn down," Gregory said.
Other employees, worried about worsening economic conditions,
are going after positions with more stable companies.
"People are pretty risk-adverse," said Ziegler of ZDS Technology
Group.
Brent Grube, 30, worked at three dot-coms and joined the ranks
of the unemployed when two of them flopped. When he looked for
another sales job, he didn't want to do the start-up thing again.
Instead, he went to Qwest Communications International, which
employs 67,000.
"The company is not going to disappear based on one or two
people's actions," Grube said. "And Qwest is really poised for big
growth in the future."
Copyright 2001 The Denver Post. All rights reserved. |
