You knew it was coming…it depends. Particularly as an independent recruiter, you have to read the tea leaves carefully.
The strong US dollar makes the things the US imports cheaper, so it should drive up production from off shore producers. Cars made in Europe and Asia are getting cheaper with each percentage point of growth for the dollar. If you do international recruitment, there should be increased demand for employees in manufacturing jobs overseas. If you have global employers as clients, ask them where they are adding the most people. Work with partners to fill those global openings. Global recruitment should see a nice increase in the year ahead.
Since the US is a consumer economy, the typical US citizen will have more to spend and will have a better standard of living because of the growing strength of the dollar. More employees and candidates will want to work for US companies and get paid in US dollars. In time, people will feel better about their situation and perhaps be more open to career moves. This is the time to search for the passive candidates in your globally branded source employment companies. Folks tend to hold on tight to what they have in a declining economy; the opposite is true when things go well. Over the long haul, too much strength will make US domestically-built products too expensive to those outside the US and employment in manufacturing may again begin to shift to offshore production facilities. Yes, the cycle starts all over again.
The weaker an economy is, the more a strong currency creates and spells trouble ahead. The good news is that the strong dollar may reduce the demand for US products and slow the inflationary effects of a warming economy. That is drawing good news from bad!
What is the current state of the US economy? It is not at a historically strong benchmark. The major reason for the strong dollar is the falling Euro, Japanese yen, Australian and Canadian dollars. To some extent policymakers, especially in the Euro-zone, are using currency depreciation as a policy tool to stimulate economies. This runs parallel to the situation with oil prices and the oil price decline. Things are fine when the markets drive results. When foreign economies start taking action to further deflate their currencies to the dollar, then we are in trouble. It will signal a strategy to kill US jobs and replace them with offshore workers. Look for European and global manufacturers to grow in the year ahead. If you are an independent recruiter, get ready for demand for engineers, manufacturing expertise, logistics and other production-related talent demands from employers building products outside the US.
Great food for thought Dave!
Thanks