A couple of weeks ago I sent out emails to a number of candidates we haven’t chatted with for a while. It’s not really my job, but I figure that if I were looking for work and didn’t hear from a recruiter, I’d wonder whether or not they had lost interest in me (or gotten run over by a bus or whatever). So I make it my business to keep in touch with candidates.

I have to confess, I find it interesting when I reach out like this.

It’s a sign of the times when I send out notes and hear back from a small fraction of the candidates. When that’s happening, it signifies that candidates have already found work and couldn’t be bothered to reply. That’s NOT what happened this time.

I heard back from about 70% of the people I emailed. Many of them responded to me within 24 hours.

Of those who replied, the vast majority confirmed that they are still looking for work. A lot of them are employed in unsatisfactory situations—either dead end jobs or unstable companies or contracts that are coming to an end soon. And a lot of them are unemployed, in some cases unemployed for a long time.

A few people told us that they found work in Michigan. And more told us that they found work outside of Michigan and, regrettably, had to take it.

I assume that those who didn’t reply at all are working again. At least I hope that’s the case.

We are seeing improvements. More projects finally coming on line. Many are small, but they are coming in. This is what we expect to see as things loosen up. It seems consistent with what our candidates are seeing, too.

Let’s hope that this is the upswing we’re all looking for!

By the way, we don’t lose interest in candidates. We just don’t have reason to call them unless/until a position comes in that looks like a match.