Hiring plans for 2016 look a lot like what companies expected last year, according to CareerBuilder’s annual job forecast.
Customer service, IT and sales top the list of most in-demand positions to be filled this year. The same three that topped last year’s list.
Contingent hiring will be as strong as last year, while the percentage of companies planning to make permanent, full-time hires is 36%, identical to what the 2015 forecast reported.
In its report, CareerBuilder declares U.S. job growth will “hold steady” this year. Its survey of some 2,300 hiring managers and HR professionals found little difference between their 2015 hiring plans and what they expect this year.
Some industries, though, are well above the national average:
Customer service, IT, and sales jobs are among the most in-demand.
Those are the same three that topped the list last year, but in a different order, Last year it was sales, customer service, then IT.
47% of companies expect to add temporary or contract workers during the year. That nearly matches exactly what CareerBuilder reported last year when 46% of the survey respondents said they planned to up their contingent workforce.
A different report, this one from Ardent Partners, sees even more companies expecting to up their contingent workforce. About 35% of today’s entire workforce is made up of non-employee workers. Ardent’s report says “nearly 70% of enterprises today expect their contingent workforce to grow steadily in the 12 months ahead.”
The CareerBuilder forecast says hiring plans are strongest in the West where 42% of companies plan to add workers during the year. The West, though, also has the largest%age — 12% — of companies expecting to make cuts. The fewest companies — 30% — reporting plans to increase staff are in the Northeast.
By size, it’s the smallest employers who are most optimistic about hiring. 27% of employers with fewer than 51 workers expect to grow this year. That’s a 7%age point increase over last year. Of those with 500 or more employees, 42% have hiring plans, about the same%age (43%) as in 2015.