America Employed

The U.S. job market should continue to be hot for the remainder of 2023, as 80% of companies feel positive about the hiring outlook, including hopeful (45%), optimistic (42%) and confident (41%). The positive sentiment is up from 75% in late 2022.

This is according to a recent survey from The Harris Poll commissioned by Express Employment Professionals.

More than 3 in 5 hiring managers (62%) say their company plans to increase the number of employees at their company through Dec. 31, which is on par with the last few waves of the Job Insights survey.

Overall, hiring expectations have been trending upward over the past few years.

For companies reporting plans to increase headcount, many say this is due, in part, to managing increased volumes of work (52%). The need to fill newly created positions (48%), fill open positions due to employee turnover (42%) and handle expansion into other categories or markets (28%, down from 34% in late 2022) also contribute to the hiring push many companies are reporting.

This continued positive hiring trend should be encouraging news for American job seekers given that in a recent Express study conducted among more than 1,000 American job seekers age 18+, nearly 2 in 5 said they are actively looking for a new job (38%).

While many companies plan to increase their employee count, 28% report planning to stay at about the same number or make no change to the number of employees in the second half of 2023.

Few (7%) will reduce their employee count in 2023, citing the main reason as reducing costs (59%), followed by aligning with the decline in demand at the company (31%) and outsourcing certain functions (26%).

Notably, 1 in 6 (16%) say the reason is because they are increasing use of automation/technology.

Among companies planning to decrease or make no change to the number of employees, around 2 in 5 say they are not hiring because they don’t need to (38%).

Around 1 in 5 are waiting to see if the workload will level out before hiring (22%), are adjusting their recruiting/hiring strategy (19%) or are doing less business (18%). Others report they don’t have enough money in the budget this year (17%), are waiting to hire until after the economy returns to normal (17%) or can’t afford to hire right now (17%).

“Despite challenging global economic conditions, it’s encouraging to see employers are confident enough in their financial situations to bring on additional staff,” Express Employment International CEO Bill Stoller said. “If the pattern holds, the beginning of 2024 will bring about much cause for celebration for both companies and job seekers.”

The Job Insights survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Express Employment Professionals between June 13 and June 26, 2023, among 1,010 U.S. hiring decision-makers (defined as adults ages 18+ in the U.S. who are employed full-time or self-employed, work at companies with more than one employee, and have full/significant involvement in hiring decisions at their company). Data were weighted where necessary by company size to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in our surveys. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within + 3.2 percentage points using a 95% confidence level. This credible interval will be wider among subsets of the surveyed population of interest. 

If you would like to arrange for an interview with Bill Stoller to discuss this topic, please contact Sheena Hollander, Director of Corporate Communications and PR, at (405) 717-5966.

William H. "Bill" Stoller is chairman and chief executive officer of Express Employment International. Founded in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the international staffing franchisor supports the Express Employment Professionals franchise and related brands. The Express franchise brand is an industry-leading, international staffing company with franchise locations in the U.S., Canada, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.

At Express Employment Professionals, we’re in the business of people. From job seekers to client companies, Express helps people thrive and businesses grow. Our international network of franchises offers localized staffing solutions to the communities they serve across the U.S., Canada, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand, employing 579,000 people globally in 2022 and more than 10 million since its inception. For more information, visit ExpressPros.com.