"We've seen record growth in the past six months," says Blake Helppie, whose company, JobApp Network provides franchisors and franchisees - especially those with hourly, entry-level workers - with systems that pre-screen job applicants.

Why should a hiring company be swimming in the deep end of the pool when unemployment is at a five-year high? Because as unemployment rates are reaching skyward, the supply and demand balance shifts in favor of the employer. In other words, more people are applying for fewer jobs. But more applicants for jobs don't always mean more qualified applicants, and that's the problem.

"Many hourly employers lacking good hiring processes are ironically having even more difficulty hiring good people today, because the haystack is that much more daunting," Helppie says. "Further complicating matters, a significant number of job seekers are entering the hourly market out of temporary necessity. While these applicants may be willing and able to work today, they will be gone as soon as they find an opportunity that's more in line with their real expectations."

In uncertain economic times like we're in now, where layoffs have occurred in many segments of the business community, owners and managers of fast food, casual dining and service franchises are receiving a flood of resumes for any job opening, entry-level or otherwise. That's because, when people are laid off, they want and need to find work fast, and unfortunately, that means they apply for jobs they're not necessarily suited for.

And when times get better, they're likely to move on. That's bad news for an industry with an already-large turnover rate.

So, how do savvy business owners and managers make sure they hire the best of the best even in tough times?

Joe Bourdow, president of Valpak Direct Marketing Systems, a Largo, Florida-based direct mail franchisor, says he keeps an even keel on hiring no matter the economy by establishing "sourcing" relationships from which he can pull a qualified pool of applicants in any job market. It's all about keeping those supply lines moving.

"We maintain excellent relationships with many college and university-level career placement organizations as well as professional recruiters, all of whom allow us to find a lot of talent," Bourdow says. "We're also big believers in validated job profiling and behavior based interviewing."

By that, he means targeting interview questions to specific behaviors and situations the applicant has encountered in the past rather than the more common hiring practice of asking vague, routine or open-ended interview questions. Instead of, "What's your take on customer service?" ask, "Give me an example of a time when you encountered a difficult customer, and how you handled it."

In honing a question carefully, you're able to uncover the specifics of your applicant's past behavior on the job. And since past behavior is one of the best predictors of future behavior, it will tell you much about how your applicant will perform as your employee.

Armando Lopez, director of training management for the Nashville-based restaurant franchise O'Charley's, agrees, and takes the concept one step further noting that powerful questioning is the key to ferreting out who will be the best performer on the job.

"It's behavior-based questioning plus the key element of knowing what the preferred response to the question is," Lopez says. "It's a question that leads to a hiring decision."

Lopez says he likes to ask servers and other front-of-the-house workers, "What's your favorite movie of all time?" It might be a puzzling question. What does one's favorite movie have to do with being a good server? But Lopez doesn't care about the movie. He's wants to hear how the applicant describes it.

"With that question, I'm looking for passion," he says. "If they describe their favorite movie passionately, then they'll describe their favorite menu item passionately to customers."

In this way, he pulls an applicant's competencies and characteristics from their responses to powerful questions with targeted answers.

Bottom line: Careful attention to hiring practices is always important, but in a recession when you're flooded with resumes, it's even more vital.