The talent wars continue to heat up as nearly half of employers expect to add jobs in October.
A survey from the Society for Human Resource Management found that 45 percent of manufacturing executives and 41 percent of service industry executives who responded to the hiring survey said they will be staffing up this month. The increases represent a 3.5 percent hike for manufacturers and a 3.4 percent rise for the service sector, compared to October 2013.
That would boost hiring rates to a four-year high, SHRM said, with October marking the seventh month in a row of year-over-year gains.
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Those surveyed said they're struggling to find the right fit for many key positions, which has been an ongoing challenge for two years, SHRM said.
The good news for job seekers is that the talent wars are resulting in richer compensation packages offered to those considered to have top talent.
In September, SHRM said, 11.5 percent of manufacturing respondents reported increasing new-hire compensation, an increase of 5.3 points from September 2013.
The service sector showed up even more strongly, with 12 percent of companies reporting increased new-hire compensation in September. That was up by 4.3 percent compared to a year earlier.
"The difficulty filling key jobs may be why rates for some new-hire positions improved in September for both the manufacturing and service sectors," said Jennifer Schramm, manager of workforce trends at SHRM.
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
