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40 Percent of Employers Say They’re Hiring This Year

Topics: Data & Research

If you’re looking for work right now, you’ll be pleased to know that the current hiring outlook is excellent, according to the recently released annual jobs forecast from CareerBuilder. According to the survey, many employers plan to hire new full-time employees in the year ahead.

Hiring people
Image Credit: shironosov/Getty Images

The survey was administered during the last two months of 2016 to 2,392 hiring and human resource managers. All HR managers who took the survey were within the U.S., over the age of 18, employed full-time, and not self-employed or government workers. The survey was conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder.

40 percent of employers say they plan to hire full-time, permanent staff this year.

The survey results indicated that 40 percent of employers plan to hire new full-time workers in 2017. That’s up four percentage points from last year’s 36 percent. In fact, job growth has been steady for quite some time. 2017 is coming on the heels of a record-setting 75 months of job growth. Employers seem poised to continue this trend in the year ahead, according to the findings of this report.

Employers also plan to increase hiring of part-time, temporary, or contract workers.

Other employers said they expect to hire new part-time workers in the coming year. Last year, 26 percent of employers said they planned to hire new part-time workers. This year, that number is up four percentage points. Thirty percent of the employers surveyed expect to increase their part-time staff in 2017. Additionally, 51 percent of employers say they plan to employ temporary or contract workers this year. That’s up three percentage points from the previous year.

Sometimes, part-time, temporary, or contract employment isn’t what’s best for the worker. This is the case when an employee wants full-time employment (and often the benefits and other perks that come along with it) but that opportunity isn’t available to them. But, there is another encouraging statistic from this report that speaks to that concern. Sixty-three percent of the employers surveyed said that they plan to transition some of their temporary or contract workers to permanent roles in the year ahead. That’s up from 58 percent in 2016. The report did not include data on transitioning part-time employees to full-time status.

Some job categories will expand more than others.

Workers in some fields can expect more growth than average. The survey results revealed five key job areas where significant growth is expected in the year ahead. They are as follows:

  • Information technology
  • Customer service
  • Production
  • Sales
  • Administrative

Additionally, although the hiring outlook is trending upward in every region of the country except for one (permanent and temporary hiring in the Midwest region shows little change from last year, but it’s still expected to grow in 2017) some areas can expect to see more new job opportunities that others. Workers in the west have the best prospects, with 44 percent of employers saying they plan to hire full-time permanent employees in the year ahead. Also, 60 percent of employers in this region anticipate hiring temporary or contract workers.

Hiring managers have mixed opinions about the impact of Donald Trump’s presidency.

Respondents were asked to weigh in with their opinions regarding how the Trump administration might impact hiring in 2017. Twenty-three percent said that they thought jobs would increase as a result. Twenty-seven percent didn’t anticipate any impact. Seven percent said they thought jobs would decrease. And, the largest group by far, 43 percent, said they were undecided about how the Trump administration will impact hiring.

It can be difficult to predict job market changes, especially when we’re in the process of shifting from one presidential administration to another. But, if these survey results are any indication, 2017 could be remembered as yet another period of solid job growth.

Tell Us What You Think

Are you planning to look for work in 2017? We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or join the discussion on Twitter.

 


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