The busiest hiring season in more than six years may be on the horizon?
That’s according to an optimistic new CareerBuilder/Harris Poll forecast.
About 29% of employers say they plan on hiring full-time, permanent employees in the fourth quarter of 2014. That’s a four percentage point jump from a poll conducted the same time last year.
Nine percent of employers predict they’ll be reducing staff, which is on par with a 2013 CareerBuilder poll. Fifty-seven percent anticipate their staffing size will remain the same, and 5% aren’t sure what they’ll do.
“After experiencing incremental improvements over the past few years, the U.S. labor market is nearing a tipping point,” predicts CareerBuilder CEO Matt Ferguson. “The jobs outlook for Q4 is now more in line with pre-recession forecasts … What’s also encouraging is that recruitment plans for small businesses with more than 50 employees are keeping pace with larger organizations.”
Who’ll be looking for part-time help the most
More good news for job seekers: Twenty-five percent of companies say they’ll be hiring seasonal or part-time help for Q4.
Here are the industry sectors that say they’ll need seasonal employees the most for the end of 2014:
- Customer service (40%)
- Administrative and clerical (15%)
- Shipping/delivery (13%)
- Accounting/finance (12%)
- Inventory management (12%)
- IT (11%)
- Sales (non-retail) (11%)
- Gift wrapping (10%)
- Marketing (7%)
- Restaurant hosting and greeting (7%)
- PR (7%)