The years immediately after 2000 were tough for the recruitment market. They heralded a period of consolidation and change, the consequences of which are only now emerging as companies attempt to understand the shifts and pressures that are moulding the employment landscape.

It is not unusual to talk about big change in recruitment. But there have been false dawns before. In the last downturn some of the hardest knocks were delivered to the newborn online recruitment sector that suffered, with other dotcom entrants, from a punishing reaction to over-exuberant growth.