Talent still sought despite economic gloom
Published: 06 Sep 2001 10:14 BST
The quest for talent goes on, despite the economic downturn and massive global layoffs.
"There is a rising unemployment rate," admitted Monster.com Asia Pacific chief executive Libby Christie, noting the huge numbers of layoffs in recent months. However, the online recruitment firm notes that many of its clients "still need good IT people, good accountants and good salespeople."
Christie was speaking at the keynote address of Internet Business 2001 at Suntec City this morning. She added that even mid-career workers who have been retrenched "have a chance to match their skills to meet demand in another sector" if they retrain.
When asked if her company has seen a decline in the number of job postings online, Christie gave a firm negative.
"So far, employers are still hiring and saving costs as they hire. In the past, they may put up a job vacancy in the newspapers and on the Internet, but now they do so only on the Internet," she said.
This is because classifieds on Monster are up to 12 times cheaper than those in traditional media such as newspapers, Christie explained.
To further prove her point, she added that Monster's global revenues grew a phenomenal 130 percent to $156.6m in the first quarter of this year, from US$68.4m last year.
In fact, Monster's Q1 results made up about 43 percent of the total revenues of its parent company, TMP Worldwide. New York-based TMP's other businesses include Yellow Pages advertising and direct marketing.
To date, says Christie, Monster has registered 18 million job seekers worldwide, and manages 11 million resumes. In Asia Pacific, the firm operates five country-specific sites in Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and India, and it has sites in the UK and Europe.
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