Like most Spend Matters readers in the United States, I’m taking off to spend the day with my family, holding our last official summer barbecue. But that hasn’t stopped me from thinking more closely about a subject that’s been on my mind ever since it started to feel that Q3 and Q4 were going to become more challenging again from an economic standpoint. And that’s the potential for larger numbers of skilled sourcing professionals to come on the job market after layoffs from both corporate and consulting jobs. Just last week, we made a couple of calls in the office to connect the son of a friend who had lost his strategic sourcing job at a professional services firm scaling back across its practice. And I know his situation is not unique.
As the potential for flat or negative economic growth begins to hit home inside companies, I believe we’ll see layoffs pick up this fall and winter, even within procurement organizations, which are often the most effective engines of overall cost reduction inside many companies (this is an irony which I’ll never fully understand). And as larger numbers of skilled employees come on the market, competing against not just similar types for jobs, but also BPO firms as well, (many of which are increasingly introducing skilled offshore sourcing resources as part of their offerings): heavy competition will occur. As this happens, I’ll hypothesize that the wage for basic sourcing skill sets in new hires — at the manager and lower levels — will be pressured…
