With the domestic economic recovery driving employment gains, it appears staffing, recruiting and consulting companies are looking for continued momentum in tech hiring over second half of 2014, according to the Dice.com Hiring Survey.
Eight out of 10 respondents – those who place technology professionals – believe their company or their clients will increase hiring plans over the next six months, as compared to the first half of the year. That’s close to the same proportion (83 percent) when asking a similar cohort six months ago if they anticipated momentum in the first half of the year.
Their prediction is worth noting because this group of hiring professionals have proven to be an accurate gauge of economic turns. For example, in November 2009, just 27 percent had thought the economy had sparked an increase in hiring plans. In June 2010, though, that number jumped to 51 percent. Later that year, the National Bureau of Economic Research called the end of the most recent recession.
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Today, the economic climate is cited as the reason for increased hiring by 38 percent of staffing, recruiting and consulting firms. By contrast, only 35 percent cited the economy as the reason to increase new hires in November 2013.
The May 2014 survey, to which more than 450 tech-focused staffing, recruiting and consulting firm professionals responded, revealed some other interesting developments in the tech hiring marketplace:
- Discussing the speed of the hiring process, 47 percent staffing, recruiting and consulting firms surveyed said the process had slowed down relative to last year which is about flat with six months ago. By comparison, 26 percent said the pace had quickened, an improvement from November when 22 percent thought the same thing. The primary reasons for the quicker pace: companies recruiting for new positions and companies making offers after seeing very few candidates.
- The expectation of organizational layoffs declined from 12 percent believing layoffs were likely in November 2013 to only nine percent saying the same thing in the May 2014 survey. By contrast, 20 percent called layoffs likely one year ago.
- The May survey indicated stability for tech professionals when it comes to compensation, with expectations for new hires nearly mirroring the survey results from six months previous. In both May and last November, about half of those staffing, recruiting and consulting firms indicated salaries for new hires would be higher than the year before.
- Despite those expected salary bumps, 69 percent of staffing, recruiting and consulting companies said positions were open because the salary guidelines for the position.
Hiring professionals working for staffing, recruiting and consulting professionals are consistently more optimistic than their corporate counterparts. Right now, everyone is pretty optimistic about the job market for technology professionals. For the combined results, please visit Dice.com.
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