37% of recruiters relax hiring demands in tight labor market

Thirty-seven percent of employers have relaxed job requirements for temporary workers to compete for talent, according to a new survey by Adecco USA of 501 individuals responsible for hiring. And 72% of those employers loosened the requirements in the past year, according to the poll. Nearly half of respondents who relaxed or plan to relax their requirements did so because they couldn't find enough qualified candidates, they said. And among those who said they plan to loosen requirements, 46% hope they will find a larger pool of qualified candidates. A third of respondents said they decided to relax requirements because they were losing job candidates to the competition. Just over half said they were unable to fill openings fast enough.