Narayan AmmachchiAn increased number of U.S. employers plan to hire more full-time workers and are also mulling raising wages this year, according to CareerBuilder’s job forecast for 2015. The survey found that 36% of employers are planning to increase full-time, permanent headcount, a significant jump from 24% last year.
Topping the list of sectors looking to hire permanent employees is Information Technology. Nearly 54% of employers in the IT industry have talked of hiring full-time workers. Hiring for the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) occupations will also continue to be strong with 31% of hiring managers planning to create jobs in these areas over the next 12 months, up from 26% last year.
Other sectors hiring full-time employees include financial services (42%), manufacturing (41%) and healthcare (38%). Nine percent expect to decrease staff levels, an improvement from 13% last year.
The number of temporary workers is also set to grow, with the analyst firm finding that 46% of employers are talking of hiring contract workers.
“The amount of companies planning to hire in 2015 is up 12 percentage points over last year, setting the stage for a more competitive environment for recruiters that may lend itself to some movement in wages,” said Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder.
Companies in emerging technologies such as Big Data, cloud, mobility and cyber security are most likely to add more employees this year.
Forty-five percent of employers expect to raise the minimum wage within their organizations in 2015. Of these employers, just over half (53%) will raise it by US$2 or more per hour while almost one-third (32%) will raise it by $3 or more. Forty-seven percent will limit the increase to $1 or less.
Another significant trend is that 28% of companies say they’re now hiring workers with master’s degrees for positions that had been primarily held by workers with four-year degrees.
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