A spate of mergers and acquisitions in recruitment has given the strongest indication yet that the industry could be about to bounce back from its fallow period.

A series of high profile deals in the last month have included:

The marketing recruitment firm Major Players has bought the advertising and direct marketing recruitment firm Out of the Blue for an undisclosed sum.

Hotgroup, the listed online recruitment firm, has continued its foray into traditional recruitment by buying The Buzz for £390,000.

Recruiter Eden Brown has acquired the search consultancy Executive Selection Associates – which places senior level candidates within the building sector – for an undisclosed sum.

Construction recruiter Hill McGlynn has merged with Leeds-based Team Up Workforce.

The financial jobsite eFinancialCareers.com has bought Jobsinthemoney.com, a US job site for accounting, banking and finance professionals.

And, as we reported earlier this month, BNB, the listed recruitment firm, has bought Garfield Robbins, a well-established legal recruitment consultancy, in a three-year deal potentially worth £8m.

Commentators claim that the flurry of merger and acquisition activity is further evidence that the industry’s fortunes are turning. “People are throwing off the gloom,” says John Bissell, senior partner at LBA, a company which specialises in buying and selling recruitment businesses. “We’ve noticed a tremendous difference in attitude. People are coming back on to the market who’ve stayed away for the last three years.”