Further evidence that a downturn could be on its way emerged this week as several companies in the staffing sector axed jobs.

Recruitment companies in the online and IT markets have cut staff numbers as the markets they serve continue to perform badly on the back of problems in the US economy, particularly the technology market.

Corporate Executive Search, part of the Auxinet group and a major player in the technology search business, has cut 12 of its team of 45, with the redundancies taking effect from this month.

Howard Bird, managing director of recruitment business at Auxinet, said: ‘The market has been negative for the last three months, and we’ve lost a number of client business relationships. The larger businesses in the technology market with shareholder responsibilities will have to be very prudent. Niche players may do better.’

Bird confirmed that companies such as Cisco, Intel and Lucent were consolidating by cutting global headcount, and predicted that the telecoms recruitment market would remain flat for the next six months at least.

Auxinet is by no means the only recruitment outfit to be affected by the current lack of confidence in the global economy.

Market rumour suggested that Harvey Nash, which announced a 10% drop in revenue recently, had made job cuts. The IT recruiter denied that this was true, but confirmed that there had been dismissals among staff who were ‘under-performing’. Chief executive David Higgins admitted recently that the market was currently experiencing a slowdown at all levels of recruitment.

Meanwhile Barkers Norman Broadbent, the company behind myoyster.com, has cut 10% of its 160-strong workforce. Chief executive Graham Durgan said: ‘The recruitment market is certainly down. We are consulting with employees as to whether further job cuts will be required.’

Global search giant Korn/Ferry has also reduced headcount. The headhunting firm is involved in the online market through its executive website Futurestep, which is where the job losses are thought to have occurred. The company declined to make a statement.

It seems clear, however, that recruitment, particularly in the online and technology markets, faces a rocky road. Shaun Tyson, professor of HR Management at the Cranfield School Of Management, said: ‘People have a negative view of the economy in the medium to long term, but their immediate experience has not yet been bad.’