WASHINGTON, D.C. AREA FARES WELL IN HIRESTRATEGY'S NATIONAL JOBS SURVEY

Reston, VA, July 12, 2001

Despite the economic slowdown, the Washington, D.C., area remains one of the best places in the country to find a job, according to the June/July 2001 edition of the Job Opportunity Index™, a monthly report released by FlipDog.com™, with additional analysis on the Washington, D.C., area provided by Reston, Va.-based executive recruiting firm, HireStrategy.

The JOI still lists Virginia and Maryland among the top ten states in the country for job seekers, despite the sluggish economy. Both states have ranked in the top ten since the beginning of the year.

"Jobs continue to be created in the Washington area," says Paul Villella, president and CEO of HireStrategy. "It's true that many employers have slowed their hiring, imposed hiring freezes and are being much more selective. But there are still opportunities out there, in both the private and public sectors, where the federal government and state and local governments have stepped up their efforts to recruit technology professionals."

According to the JOI, the nationwide supply of jobs is at its highest level in three months, despite the rise in the seasonally adjusted June unemployment rate to 4.5 percent. All nine U.S. regions and the majority of states posted JOI gains in June, signifying an increase in job openings in most parts of the country.

"Cautious optimism is the key right now - employers are still hiring, and there is enough work to support a strong U.S. economy," says Brett Walker, FlipDog.com's vice president of marketing. "However, we're also beginning to see the results from a lot of layoff announcements earlier this year, which explains the recent increase in seasonally adjusted unemployment rates."

"Locally, we're doing all right, but only by comparison with the rest of the country," Villella says. "Virginia ranks second behind Massachusetts as the best place in the country to find a job, and Maryland ranks tenth. Interestingly, the west coast, home to many top technology companies and the hotbed of the Internet economy, now has the highest unemployment in the country. By contrast, unemployment in suburban Maryland is around three percent and unemployment in northern Virginia is around two percent, both well under the national average."

"There continues to be a fair amount of 'hidden hiring' in the Washington area, with employers using their own networks, their own internal resources, and recruiting firms to recruit new employees rather than posting their openings on job boards or sponsoring job fairs or placing job ads in the newspapers," says Villella.

According to Villella, the technology sector of the Washington area economy shows a healthy diversity, which helps protect it from deep downturns. "The presence of the federal government, which spends billions of dollars annually on technology products and services, is also an important factor in the area economy's relative strength, compared to other parts of the country." He says the telecommunications sector has been devastated, however, and that the damage there has spilled over into related industries.

"We expect to see Washington area technology layoffs and downsizing to slow during the third quarter," he says, "And the job market and economy as a whole to improve in the fourth quarter."

Originally launched in May 2000, the JOI measures the current supply of U.S. jobs relative to workforce size. JOI reports are based on statistical methodology that utilizes FlipDog.com's sample of jobs listed on employers' Web sites and unadjusted workforce data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. TopTrends™, a Web content analysis company based in Provo, Utah, assists FlipDog.com in the production of the JOI. While the JOI covers a broad number of hiring organizations, it is not intended to be an exhaustive survey of U.S. employers. More information about the Job Opportunity Index can be found at http://joi.flipdog.com.

HireStrategy, Reston, Va., is an executive recruiting firm serving technology businesses and professionals. HireStrategy's proprietary technology and its team of experienced, industry-specific recruiters enables it to match quality candidates with exciting opportunities at some of the top companies in the Washington, DC, area. HireStrategy is a leader in recruiting and placing top-level Technology, Sales and Finance & Accounting professionals. The company, founded in January 2000, has been named one of the hottest executive recruiting firms in the area by Washington Business Forward magazine.