There’s good news:  the recovery is gathering steam.

The economy is showing robust growth:  7.2% in the third quarter. The stock market is soaring. Profits are rising.  M&A activity is picking up, along with corporate IT spending and investment. We’ve seen three straight months of job gains, with the latest being almost twice as large as expected and all in the service sector.  The mood is lifting.  And as you’ll see throughout this issue of the Ayers Report, the signs have begun to appear in our marketplace. Recruitment and IT consulting are up—here and abroad.

The Ayers Group, which began 2003 as a regional firm with five offices in the tri-state area, will enter 2004 as an international organization with a recruiting office in London.  As we move into our 29^th year of business, we’re looking ahead to our 30^th anniversary with the feeling that for the first time in several years we’ll have something to celebrate.

Yes, there’s good news. But, as is usually the case, it’s tempered by bad news.

We’ve been warning for more than a year now that when the recovery kicks in, the floodgates are going to crash open. Employees who have survived the waves of downsizing and have been doing more with less—and for less—will flood out. All the line managers we talk with know it’s coming, and they’re afraid they’ll lose good people if you—the HR professionals—don’t do something to stem the tide.

The problem is that downsizing has left you raw. You not only had to make the cuts, you then had to endure the devastation of your own ranks. As requirements for HR positions begin to materialize, we find that many of those we’re dealing with in that area are contemplating jumping ship. Stop and think about it. The fact that you and your peers feel this way is all the verification you need that everyone else does, too.