The Hiring Freeze

By Jacqueline Durett

While the global ecomony's been going downhill for more than a year now, the management consulting industry had actually stayed somewhat insulated, thanks to the nature of longterm contracts and ongoing projects. But that's changing. Watson Wyatt says 23 percent of all U.S. firms plan layoffs this year, and some of those firms are consultancies. In fact, some industry giants like Unisys have already reduced headcount. In this environment, layoffs are inevitable, but does that mean firms have turned off the recruiting spigot and capitulated in the war for talent?

Hardly. Smart consultancies realize that there's more talent available right now than there has been in years. For instance, MBAs don't see financial services as a safe sector to be in, and financial services firms aren't hiring anyway. "It's pretty obvious that the students who were interested in banking have gravitated to the consulting pool, and then the other students who wanted consulting all along feel that they're facing then a more competitive pool, which they aren't happy about," says Carla Edelston, senior associate director at Northwestern University's Kellogg Career Management Center.