The job market is looking good, as 60 percent of American employers plan to hire more people in the next six months.
The biggest hiring industries are information technology, healthcare, manufacturing or financial services, according to a study from the employment website CareerBuilder. The cherry on top — 72 percent of Companies are feeling pressure to pay their employees more.
The number of employers looking for full-time people is up 50 percent from last year. Additionally, 36 percent of employers are looking to hire more part time workers, up 29 percent from last year.
Even contract and freelance workers have more work coming their way, as almost half — 46 percent — of employers say they plan to hire more, up 32 percent from last year.
“Most employers remain confident in their outlook for financial growth and plans for hiring,” says Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder. “Job seekers stand to benefit not only from having more options, but also from the growing intensity in the competition for talent. Employers are moving quickly to recruit candidates and they are willing to pay more across job levels.”
That growing competition has human resource managers pressured to pay more as the market has become increasingly competitive.
Job seekers fresh to the market stand to gain, with 53 percent of employers planning to offer higher starting salaries. That’s up 14 percent from 2016. Another thing for those fresh out of college to look forward to: 61 percent of employers plan to offer more for entry-level employees.
Current employees can rejoice, too. Two-thirds of employers plan to increase salaries to those already on payroll.
Regionally, companies in the western U.S. are looking to hire the most at 67 percent, followed by the south with 61 percent.
More than half of the companies in the Northeast and Midwest also plan to bring on more employees, at 56 and 53 percent respectively.
Regardless of location, medium-sized employers are poised to bring on the most employees. Seventy-two percent of companies with 250 to 500 employees are planning on adding more permanent jobs, and even more companies with between 500 and 1000 employees plan to hire more.
Information technology is leading other industries in a hiring surge, at 72 percent. That comes in 12 percentage points higher than the national average for plans to add full-time, permanent employees. Manufacturing is at 66 percent, health care is at 64 percent and financial services at 62 percent are also expected to outperform the national average.
So what kind of skills are these employers looking for? Take a look at the list below.
- Skilled trades – 15 percent
- Software as a service – 14 percent
- Cybersecurity – 13 percent
- Sales enablement – 13 percent
- Talent management – 13 percent
- Providing a good user experience – 12 percent
- Managing and interpreting Big Data – 11 percent
- Creating digital strategies – 11 percent
- Social marketing – 10 percent
- E-commerce – 10 percent
- Developing apps – 10 percent
- Healthy living – 9 percent
Bottom line: If you’re looking for work right now, it’s probably out there. And paying better.
