Job Insights for the Fourth Quarter of 2019

Businesses generally optimistic about the fourth quarter employment market; recruiting skilled workers and employee retention remain top challenges. 

To provide accurate and timely employment forecasts for business leaders, Express Employment Professionals International Headquarters conducts an ongoing Job Insights survey to track quarterly hiring trends across a wide range of industries.

Express surveyed business owners, decision makers, and human resource professionals about the overall hiring trends in their markets and how those trends impact their hiring decisions.

Employers remain generally optimistic about the employment market for the fourth quarter of 2019

Eighty-nine percent (89%) of survey respondents said their employment markets are either “trending up” (40%) or “staying the same” (49%) for the fourth quarter of 2019. Only 11% forecast a downward trend in employment activity. Additionally, 93% do not plan to eliminate any positions within key segments in the fourth quarter.

The top 5 segments hiring in the fourth quarter of 2019 include

  • General Labor (Industrial): 34%
  • Skilled Labor (Industrial): 28%
  • Administrative/Office Clerical: 18%
  • Accounting/Finance: 7%
  • Engineering: 6%

In a strong employment market that favors job seekers, effective recruiting and retention practices are key differentiators for businesses.

There’s a new normal in today’s employment market. Recruiting and retaining top talent requires a more strategic approach when job options for talented, skilled workers are plentiful. Businesses must reassess their hiring and employee retention practices to ensure they attract and maintain a strong, productive workforce.

Top factors that stop candidates from accepting a job offer:

  • Not the perfect fit: 26%
  • Low pay: 25%
  • Lack of benefits: 12%
  • Lack of advancement/opportunity: 10%
  • Inflexible schedule: 10%

Top factors that cause employees to leave their companies:

  • Lack of advancement/opportunity: 21%
  • Low pay: 21%
  • Not a good cultural fit: 18%
  • Difficult schedule: 11%
  • Lack of transportation: 11%

“Grey-Collar” jobs are a growing segment of the workforce as the technical and educational requirements for many jobs and industries evolve.

The rapid advancement of technology and applications in areas like automation or artificial intelligence has given rise to a growing section of the workforce that blurs the lines between blue and white-collar jobs. “Grey-collar” work combines some of the manual labor aspects of blue-collar jobs with managerial, administrative, and educational requirements of white-collar jobs.

A recent nationwide survey conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of Express Employment Professionals shed some light on this important segment of the workforce. View the full results of this survey below, including how grey-collar workers values and outlook compare to white and blue-collar workers:

About Express Employment Professionals
Express Employment Professionals puts people to work. It generated $3.56 billion in sales and employed a record 566,000 people in 2018. Its long-term goal is to put a million people to work annually.

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