The Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) made an operating loss of £587,551 in the financial year ended 31 December 2009. This compares with a surplus of £96,363 in 2008.

Revenue fell by 20% from £6.574m to £5.308m. Costs were reduced by £581,000 to £5.896m, with 11 staff made redundant during the year.

Corporate membership was 91 members down in May 2009 compared with May 2008 (2% lower), while Institute of Recruitment Professionals’ membership was 64 (1.2%) lower at 5,353.

Kevin Green (right), the REC’s chief executive, told yesterday’s Annual General Meeting in London that “the fundamental problem was revenue from [members’] discretionary spending”.

Income from personal development, the business support unit, and research dropped £1.082m when compared with the previous year, said Green.

“With quite a lot of members going out of business, we weren’t getting many buyers when we said ‘we will give you a 5% discount on training’.”

Green said the REC’s financial performance had to be seen in the context of an incredibly tough year for the economy generally and for the recruitment industry in particular. He said the REC estimates that the industry contracted by 20-25% to £22bn.