• The official blog of Abacus Group — a place to share our knowledge and thoughts on trends in recruiting •

Employer branding is immensely important to the recruitment of Top Talent as quality candidates are drawn to work in environments they know will nurture as well as challenge them. The influx of opinion driven consumer marketing shapes employer branding in the public sphere. Employer branding can be reclaimed by a company by concentrating efforts on developing strategies to improve their image and project their best identity.

The latest jobs report shows strong U.S. employment growth. 235,000 jobs were created during the month of February, greatly exceeding economists’ expectations of a mere 190,000. Additionally, the total number of employed Americans reached its all-time peak at 152.5 million working people. Employment in Professional and Business Services added 37,000 jobs in February and 597,000 over the year.

SHRM recently reported on recruitment software company Jobvite’s 2016 Recruiter Nation Survey of more than 1,600 talent acquisition professionals in the U.S. Respondents overwhelmingly believe that hiring will be very difficult in 2017—primarily due to a shortage of qualified candidates in a market with a surplus of open jobs.