Economy poses challenges for employment agencies

Except in IT field, market is slow

Richard W. O'Donnell, president of FootBridge, with staff members (from left) Kathryn Horn, Lauren Powers, and Sarah Bevelagua in the firm's Andover headquarters. (Globe Staff Photo / Joanne Rathe)

ANDOVER - Finding jobs is a precarious business today as companies hunker down in an ailing, unpredictable economy.

According to the state Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, the November unemployment rate of 5.9 percent was the highest since August 2003. The job-loss numbers are also rising: from 3,100 in September to 8,000 in both October and November.

On the front lines of the shaky employment picture are permanent and temporary job placement firms such as the FootBridge Cos. LLC of Andover, a privately held enterprise formed in January 2000.

"It's too soon to tell how everything will shake out," Richard W. O'Donnell, president, a founder, and senior partner of the firm, said during a recent interview. "However, the permanent job market is becoming hotter for us, mostly in the information technology sector. So, I'm happy where we sit with our IT and engineering niches."

The firm has 33 employees and last month opened an engineering and environmental consulting operation in Cleveland. If everything goes as planned, FootBridge will report revenues of $21 million this year, or $1 million more than last year, said O'Donnell, 54, who lives in North Andover. The firm has been profitable since 2004, he said, declining to be specific, citing proprietary reasons.

Taking another, less rosy, view of the business of placing people in permanent and temporary positions is Paul Reardon, president of Reardon Associates in Burlington. The firm was founded in 1964 and specializes in placing candidates in human resources, accounting, engineering, and manufacturing jobs.

"Things are slow and we don't know how much slower they'll get," Reardon said. "Our business is off 30 percent from last year, and it could go to 40 percent."

One growing factor is the number of people who've contacted his firm about finding work, he said. "The number is rising dramatically."

At FootBridge, the number of individuals seeking permanent and temporary work is also up, probably by 15 to 20 percent, O'Donnell said, adding that, in terms of annual revenues, the temporary job sector accounts for the lion's share of the business, or $19 million.

The firm now has some 200 individuals doing temporary work for 60 clients, he said. "We pay them $25 to $80 per hour, depending on their job level, and provide them with health insurance, if needed."

Jimi Smith is one of them. He is a computer troubleshooter for a defense contractor in Marlborough.

Laid off from another job last March, Smith, 53, said he was sought out by FootBridge because of his security clearances. "I began working at my current job in July, and what I like most about this setup is that FootBridge keeps in touch with me regularly about how I'm doing and so on."

Many of the temporary workers have engineering jobs, some of them with large utilities in New England and elsewhere, O'Donnell said.

In the last three years, FootBridge has worked with more than 100 clients looking for permanent employees, especially for information technology openings, he said. For competitive reasons, he declined to name the employers. An employer who hires someone recommended by the Andover firm generally pays the firm a percentage of the new hire's salary.

O'Donnell's specialty has always been information technology jobs, he said, noting that in 1986, he formed his own IT staffing company, which he sold in 1997 to Fluor Corp. for an undisclosed amount. "But we did well - at the end, our annual revenues were $100 million."

He then looked for another challenging opportunity and, nearly nine years ago, started FootBridge with partners Philip R. Pelletier, 39, of Windham, N.H., and Todd E. Springer, 36, of Stratham, N.H. Previously, Pelletier had been a regional vice president of AmBit Technology, of Salem, N.H.; Springer had been a commercial engineering services manager for a Fluor Global Services division.

But the early years, due to a sputtering economy following the end of the dot.com boom, were daunting, O'Donnell conceded. "We broke even the first year, 2000, and then had losses for the next three years. But we soldiered on and got into the black four years ago."

O'Donnell said that, despite the economy, he's banking on a flow of queries coming in steadily from clients and job seekers alike while, at the same time, maintaining his corps of recruiters and salespeople.

"It may seem odd, given these times, but finding the right people for us is often difficult."

The most appealing motivation behind his firm's work, he said, "is seizing on [job] opportunities that will change people's lives."