By MICHAEL PETRO

As a recruiter in the corporate staffing and employment industry, Mike DeBellis is familiar with the uneasiness felt by job seekers in the current economy.

He didn't have to look much farther than his own home to see that, in these trying times, finding employment remains a major challenge.

While the job market has seen a slight recovery, however, the hunt for the right employer and/or the right employee remains fiercely competitive. That was a lesson learned firsthand by DeBellis, who said he watched his son leave the area for Colorado a few years after graduating from college. Unable to find a job, he eventually decided to make a move and look elsewhere.

"Depending on what you do and what you're looking for, there is still a certain level of frustration," said DeBellis, senior partner in DeBellis, Catherine & Morreale Corporate Staffing, a Williamsville firm established nearly 30 years ago.

"The economy has not experienced an uptick quite as much as people hoped. When someone is out of work, things never look good to them. People seem to be feeling a little better lately but they are still cautious and apprehensive," he said.

Area professionals in employment, headhunting and recruitment say they have produced some positive results for job seekers, thanks in part to a slowly recovering economic recovery. But it remains an employers market, according to staffing manager Karrie Catalano, who specializes in the legal field for Key Resource Group LLC, Williamsville. She said companies such as hers are working diligently to communicate with clients and determine their individual needs.

"We have been very busy in 2011 with placements," said Peggy Koch, also of Key Resource Group.

She is senior staffing manager with the employment agency that specializes in legal placements, as well information technology, medical and administrative. "We have seen an upturn in the economy, but clients are being selective. They want the best of the best, so that's what I'm looking for in our candidates."

Steve Ferraro, meanwhile, is area director for Adecco, which describes itself as Western New York's largest staffing agency. He said he knows lots of area companies that have job openings - and they are eager to fill them.

"We're not too far off from recovery, considering all the new positions coming in," Ferraro said. "The (temporary) industry is actually going very well. We're seeing the openings, which means the products are out there and things need to get done."

DeBellis said a clear indication of recovery is when job candidates receive offers from multiple employers, which increases the activity of all of his recruiters. According to DeBellis, some of the hottest jobs locally these days involve technology and electrical engineering.

Key Resource Group has seen a diverse field of job seekers, Koch said, from entry level to those with higher-end skills and extensive experience. Many are returning to work or looking to move on from their current employer.

"There are opportunities out there," Koch said. "It's about uncovering them.

"People are going to agencies and finding opportunities they wouldn't have on their own. For example, law firms simply may not have the time to look at a slew of candidates so they come to us. A lot of jobs out there are just not posted," she added.

At Adecco, they're seeing people come through the doors who say they have spent months looking for work - sometime years - and their unemployment benefits ran out, Ferraro said.  His company's challenge is finding the right person for the right position, and putting together a quality pool of job candidates for area companies.

"As long as they're willing to consider what's out there. It might not be the perfect job for them but we can make it work," he said. "I think we do a good job identifying candidates for what our clients are looking for."

After years of receiving a higher number of resumes, and job candidates from all walks of life, DeBellis said she is seeing things level off.

 Indeed, it has become increasingly difficult to woo good candidates away from their current jobs. He said that's because Western New Yorkers are reluctant to give up the stability that comes with their current position.

"People are still skittish," DeBellis said. "It makes it harder to recruit. People are less likely to put themselves on the market."

Ferraro, however, said he is seeing a newfound willingness among certain job hunters to pursue advancement and new opportunities.

"The two years prior, people were not willing to make any changes," he said.

Here's a trend, according to DeBellis: An increasing number of older job seekers are having more luck finding employment because of their work experience. They're seen as less of a flight risk; that is, less likely to pack up and leave town for opportunities elsewhere around the country.

"In this marketplace, 20-somethings are finding it difficult to find employers," he said.

But even veterans of the job market have had to change their mind-set.

The first question DeBellis used to get from most job seekers with an offer on the table was: "How much does it pay?"

Now, he said, prospective employees are asking more questions related to the stability of a company.

Koch, meawhile, said because job seekers continue to stress about finding work, especially those unemployed for long periods of time, they're accepting lower salaries. And Ferraro said many of his clients that were used to making, say, $18 an hour are taking positions more likely to pay $12 an hour.

Yet employment industry experts predict that greater optimism is not far off. They say people searching for jobs should try to be positive because more often than not, they will land squarely on their feet.

"There may have been a lot of frustration, maybe a year or two ago, but I think the consensus now is that there's more hope," Catalano said.

Michael Petro is a frequent contributor to the Buffalo Law Journal.