Agencies gone bust this year?

[sam77]

Does anyone know of any IT recruitment agencies that have gone bust this year? I'm doing some research on the IT recruitment industry.

Thanks!

[cojak]

Xtra-IT earlier in the year IIRC.

[northernladuk]

I thought there was another big one not so long ago. One poster on here posted about it and had been left high and dry.. e something? Or was that a consultancy?

Also might be worth keeping an eye on their industry website?

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[evilagent]

Does anyone know of any IT recruitment agencies that have gone bust this year? I'm doing some research on the IT recruitment industry.

Thanks!

really interesting opener.

what kinds of things are you looking at with regards these busted agencies?

[NickNick]

really interesting opener.

what kinds of things are you looking at with regards these busted agencies?

Looking to buy up the book perhaps? :O)

[evilagent]

Looking to buy up the book perhaps? :O)

Seems it would be interesting to see the depth of info gathered:

Did the agency go bust because:
1: the number of placements went down (was this specifc to the agency, or generally across the sector)
2: the margins being charged (did they lose out to other more aggressive agencies on cost alone)
3: the day rates being charged (as distinct from margin; ie, did they lose candidates who were offered better day rates)
4: they were new start-ups (could be they started up, hit a bad patch, and didnt have reserves to ride out the bad patch. ie, were the busted agencies relatively smaller and newer ones)
etc

and other useful insights could be gained from these fails.

[SueEllen]

Seems it would be interesting to see the depth of info gathered:

Did the agency go bust because:
1: the number of placements went down (was this specifc to the agency, or generally across the sector)
2: the margins being charged (did they lose out to other more aggressive agencies on cost alone)
3: the day rates being charged (as distinct from margin; ie, did they lose candidates who were offered better day rates)
4: they were new start-ups (could be they started up, hit a bad patch, and didnt have reserves to ride out the bad patch. ie, were the busted agencies relatively smaller and newer ones)
etc

and other useful insights could be gained from these fails.

Or were the directors simply dipping their hands in the till and funding a lifestyle they couldn't afford?

If you know you are unlikely to get banned as a director and have plenty of relations then you know you can do that a few times.

[evilagent]

Or were the directors simply dipping their hands in the till and funding a lifestyle they couldn't afford?

If you know you are unlikely to get banned as a director and have plenty of relations then you know you can do that a few times.

true enough.
not sure, but I think you can use Companies House webcheck and search on Company Director name
to filter this. But this would be a massive overhead on the contractor, unless forums like this disseminated info like this.

generally, how many went bust due to general economic situation, and how many due to poor decisions by agency bosses.

did the fails not keep up with social media, etc?

[SueEllen]

true enough.
not sure, but I think you can use Companies House webcheck and search on Company Director name
to filter this. But this would be a massive overhead on the contractor, unless forums like this disseminated info like this.

You can can find directors names and credit check agencies quite easily.

However you also need to look at the type of end client you have particularly if you opt-out.