Employment trends in purchasing departments around the country appear to be following a mixed script. Layoffs are up, new hires are down, but talented and experienced purchasing professionals remain in demand.

In PURCHASING Magazine's most recent survey of employment trends, nearly a fourth of the companies polled report layoffs in purchasing over the past 12 months. Moreover, the depth of job cutting within companies has been relatively high, averaging out to 2.3 positions per company making layoffs. A handful of companies, mostly associated with either the Internet or electronic communications equipment, report layoffs of six or more employees per company.

In addition to layoffs, a fair number of companies have instituted salary freezes or freezes on new hires. Typically, Robert W. Martin, purchasing manager at Raybestos in Crawfordsville, Ind., reports freezes on all new hires—"except for engineers."

While layoff levels are relatively high, most of the pain is being felt at the bottom of the purchasing labor pool. Lower level staff and support personnel are being hit by layoffs at a much higher intensity than people at the mid-management and executive levels.

In many companies, the market for executive and mid-management personnel is actually being characterized as "tight" or "very tight." A number of respondents, in fact, are actively recruiting experienced and talented executives with engineering and supply chain experience to flesh out new supply strategy structures. "We'll need to intensify our training programs," says the VP of purchasing field operations at a division of Gallisons Inc. "We need to start with better-qualified new hires and bring them up more quickly."

Benefits packages are an important tool in recruitment of highly qualified purchasing pros. Dan Yagodinski, purchasing manager at Camtronics in Hartland, Wis., for instance, is using a "competitive wage and benefits package" and is even considering a "possible signing bonus" for the right person(s). Purchasing manager, John Balotsky, whose company, J.E. Morgan Knitting mills in Tamaqua, Pa., was recently acquired by a larger company, is actively using the acquiring company's benefits package in his recruitment of hard-to-find talented managerial level personnel.

Long term, perhaps the most significant finding in PURCHASING'S employment trends poll is what it says about the future structure of procurement. In a number of telephone interviews, purchasing executives, hesitant to be quoted by name, noted that the current business downturn is opening up and speeding their rationalization of the sourcing/purchasing process. A purchasing manager for a New England capital goods company, for instance, talks of more layoffs as the "result of our highly aggressive outsourcing model." Another PM, also looking at rationalization, speaks of "aggressively recruiting talented engineers" while cutting back on "nonproductive" clerical staff. The manager of strategic procurement at a West Coast electronics firm says that a "transition to strategic procurement" has meant her last three hires have all been MBAs.

Many purchasing execs also suggested a swing in the emphasis they are putting on training and background vs. experience. "We are looking less at experience and more at candidates who are trainable and highly motivated," says the VP of purchasing at a West Coast computer products maker. Likewise, the PM for a mid-sized manufacturing company says he is willing to pay more for "technical competence."