This time last year was a ‘desert' for recruiters across the board, but times have changed, observes to Gary Hammond, Director at TTR UK. "The Internet job boards saw huge drops in vacancies and many recruitment companies just couldn't survive the recession," he said.

TTR noted a return to recruitment stability in November 2009, maintaining stability through to April this year ahead of a wow-factor May, according to Hammond. He added: "We have seen a huge increase in recruitment activity throughout the channel, especially with UK-wide demand for telesales and field sales personnel.

"Our lines have been smoking with vacancies and demand for our Flat Fee Recruitment Campaigns hit an all time high in May."

Hammond says that many companies in the channel can ‘smell' the business opportunities and they are beginning to invest in attracting new business talent in telesales, new business field sales and commission-only field sales.

"This is a great indicator of the positive sentiment flooding back through the comms channel," commented Hammond. "And we are seeing fresh demand for additional engineering skills. Some companies are re-approaching engineers who they previously made redundant when things were tight."

Despite the recession there is not a ready pool of ‘ideal' applicants, noted Hammond, meaning that salaries are strong.

"For telesales, we are finding that the best salaries attract the best personnel," Hammond commented. "Good telesales staff are hard to find. If your in telesales and good at it, why are you going to respond to campaigns at £14k-£20k when some companies are prepared to pay £25k-£30k basics?"

The competition across all industries for telesales is nothing short of a ‘dutch auction', observes Hammond. "The best telesales candidates are earning circa £45k with commission. They can be worth their weight in gold."