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Here’s what the employment scene looks like.
To get a better picture of how the economy is doing (and how that affects your chances of getting a new job this winter), we surveyed business owners, decision makers, and human resource professionals about hiring trends in their markets and how they impact hiring decisions.
Business leaders predict an optimistic end to an overall strong year.
Forty-eight percent of survey respondents expect an upward trend in employment for the fourth quarter. This is up 14% over the first quarter of this year. On average throughout the year, less than 9% of survey respondents said they expected a downward trend in employment activity. Even more encouraging, 92% of companies do not plan to eliminate positions in key segments during the fourth quarter.
Jobs you may want to consider:
The top 5 segments hiring in the fourth quarter of 2018 include:
- General Labor (Industrial): 37%
- Skilled Labor (Industrial): 30%
- Administrative/Office Clerical: 21%
- Accounting/Finance: 10%
- Engineering: 9%
The jobs are there, but access to top talent continues to plague businesses.
There are jobs available, but the competition among businesses to recruit workers with the right mix of skills and expertise needed to fill them is fierce. In fact, 65% of survey respondents reported a “lack of applicants with experience” as the primary reason their open jobs are not filled—a 37% increase over first quarter of 2018. Only 16% of survey respondents said all their positions are filled.
According to the survey, top reasons jobs go unfilled include:
- Lack of applicants with experience – 65%
- Lack of applicants in general – 65%
- Lack of applicants with hard skills – 43%
- Lack of applicants with soft skills – 27%
- Pay is not competitive – 24%
What this means for you.
Employers are looking for qualified applicants, and jobs are going unfilled because they can’t find people with the right mix of skills. This means that you can get those jobs if you acquire those skills. Look into training programs or night classes and strengthen your resume to be the best employee you can be.
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