Head-hunters, or recruitment consultants as they are formally known, act as the canaries down the metaphorical mineshaft of any economy.
When times are prosperous, they can chirrup loud and long. Yet as soon as the first noxious wisps of recession waft up from the depths, they are the most sensitive to its effects and invariably the first to fall straight off their perches.
Talk to anyone in the human resources or head-hunting sectors today and you hear the language of the battle-scarred war veteran. 'We're up against the wall', 'this is the last stand for a lot of us' and 'it's a killing field out there' are typical of the expressions that crop up in conversation. And when it comes to the issue of whether a good MBA can provide some protection against the worst the recession has to offer, the tone does not change.
Asked the question, one Hong Kong-based head-hunter, who preferred to remain anonymous, simply shrugged and said: 'If the bullet's got your name on it, it's going to hit you.'
He went on to cite cases of Harvard MBA graduates losing their jobs after stellar performances while 'a guy I know with no MBA and a mediocre degree from a college known for partying and American football is still on top of the pile'.
For the many schools and faculties offering graduate business degrees, the issue is not so much one of keeping people in work but of helping them to optimise their personal potential and equip them with broader management skills.