Keep in mind that on average, recruiters individually only place 1.5 people a month. (This author averages 12, but that is an exception.)  Even the top recruiters in the most recognized search firms, according to Kennedy Information, only manage 10 to 11 "searches" at a time.  If the 5500 recruiting firms in the United States have an average of three consultants and each one of them averages 1.5 people a month that's only 24,750 people a month.

By itself that number may appear to be large, but when you put it in perspective of all of the professional job changes that go on in the course of the year, it is not that many.