A report from multi-sector recruiter Randstad predicted none of the member states would hit the Lisbon employment targets for 2010, which included a total unemployment rate of 4% or less. The European Union’s 2010 Lisbon employment targets were originally agreed upon in 2000 by the then 15 member states.

However, recruiters are targeting pockets of demand, expanding into Europe to buoy results from an unfavourable domestic market.

Roy Dungworth, director of IT recruiter Modis International, told Recruiter the business has “significantly” expanded its European business.

“Our teams speak 16 languages and we train them all on trading law within each of the different countries we work to.”

The extent of the impact of the downturn on the labour market has varied throughout Continental Europe, caused in part by the country’s legislative structure.

The report says one of the crucial elements of boosting employment is combining flexible contract arrangements with skills enhancement. Steve Ingham, chief executive of Michael Page, told Recruiter tougher labour laws in countries like Germany and Italy, made entry more difficult for smaller players.

David Heath, global director of people capital at recruitment process outsourcer Alexander Mann Solutions, told Recruiter stringent labour laws, in countries like Spain, limited international investment.

“There is concern from companies that the legislation doesn’t give them the flexibility to increase and decrease their skills base as they need.”

Unemployment is predicted to reach 16% in Spain this year and nearly 19% in 2010, close to its alltime high of 19.5% in the early 1990s. Ingham said the recruitment market in the country was very much a case of “survival of the fittest” at the moment.

Heath added that greater flexibility allows countries to recover faster, as businesses can take on staff at a low risk when the upturn hits.

Eastern European countries which have increased staffing levels due to demand for outsourced services have been hit by international competition.

Nick Greenston, global head of client services at Alexander Mann Solutions, told Recruiter that hiring levels had stalled after two years of rapid
recruitment.

“There has been a lot of mass hirers in those regions and that is not happening anymore. Eastern Europe has started to take a hit because [companies there] have priced themselves out of the market.”

Greenston said the dampening of the Eastern European marketplace had seen dramatic reductions in hiring rates, particularly in Romania and
Hungary, where they have fallen by 75%.

However, regardless of the problems, UK recruiters have been buoyed by European business.

Dungworth said the company has had significant success placing enterprise resource planning consultants, particularly within the aerospace and banking sectors in Germany and Holland.

John Paul Tointon, director of executive and sales recruiter JPE, told Recruiter the number of UK-based IT companies expanding marketshare on the continent had boosted demand, particularly in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.