Unemployment in the U.S. is a problem. This is known. Many of you are doing your part by not being unemployed. Good work! You're not part of the problem! Unfortunately, the lot of you are not able to hire hundreds upon hundreds of people and that's what we kinda need. Thankfully, professional service firms like, say, the Big 4 – notably Ernst & Young – are doing their damnedest to save this trainwreck all by themselves.
Ernst & Young is looking to make nearly 10,000 hires this upcoming year, and more than 4,000 of those will be experienced hires; the reset [sic] will be college students and recent graduates for entry-level posts.[…] [W]hile many of those looking for work are trawling Monster.com and Craigslist and sending out hundreds of résumés, Ernst & Young is getting its employees to recruit from their old companies, according to Larry Nash, the firm’s Americas director of experienced and executive recruiting. The rest will be recruited from campus for entry-level positions. While Ernst & Young is just one of the big four, and even one of the larger constellation of firms that do consulting and advisory work, its bullishness on hiring is representative of how its sector has seen a real, sustained recovery.
10,000 jobs! That's not bad. Small problem:
While many employers hire based on demand driven by economic growth—like manufacturers, homebuilders, or restaurateurs—the demand for professional services can sometimes be unrelated to the overall economy. […] [S]ustained job growth will require more firms engaging in more economic activity, not just being better at what they already do. That’s a problem too big even for one big services firm to fix, let alone four of them.
So all we have to do is wait until E&Y can manufacture some of this "economic activity." Great! How's that coming?
Why Ernst & Young’s 10,000 new hires won’t save the economy [TDB]
Related: Hiring Watch '12 and Beyond: KPMG Chicago Wants You
