Signs of life in the venture-backed job market?
Thursday, August 6th, 2009We made an interesting observation late Wednesday night. As our monthly metrics reports began streaming to our venture capital clients, we noticed that for the first time in several months more than half of our VC firm’s portfolio companies added more jobs than they removed for the month. As venture-backed startups have cut back in these tough economic times, they have been pulling job openings from their career sites. While new jobs are still added each month, the number of jobs eliminated has been significantly higher. So while a newly funded startup might list 5 new job openings, 3 other venture-backed firms might eliminate 10 previously posted jobs. But not in July. Is this s sign of hope in the job market?
Historically startups and early stage companies tend to begin hiring sooner than the bigger public companies as economic times improve. They have more flexibility and can commit to headcount without the market pressures that publicly traded companies feel. Could this be a sign of better things to come? We don’t know, but it was at least a refreshing observation. We’ll keep you posted on any other positive signs and check in next month to determine if this was an anomoly or the beginning of a trend.
