The recruiting and staffing industry is typically one of the first to understand the effects of a global pandemic, from a business point of view. The industries that are heavily affected vs the industries that truly thrive from such an unfortunate circumstance.
Regardless, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and U.S. News reports a rise in hiring with these few industries.
1. Healthcare
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects healthcare to grow by 8.4 million jobs by 2028. The healthcare industry has long fueled the country’s economy, with it comprising an average of 12% of the U.S.’s workforce.
According to APS, “In the United States, 51% of RNs are over age 50, and 44% of physicians are over age 55. In the next five years, these workers will retire, creating a greater need for elderly care and more open positions than workers to fill them.”
The World Health Organization encourages individuals and organizations alike to put preventative healthcare at the top of their priority list. Companies can incorporate health and wellness initiatives into their HR strategies. These initiatives help decrease hospitalizations and increase workforce longevity.
In addition to talent shortages, recruiting fresh, top talent is also a staffing problem in hospitals. Healthcare organizations benefit from the cost-effectiveness of new hires and their up-to-date training. However, new candidates typically prefer to accept positions with their healthcare internship providers. This gap creates geographical pockets in up-to-date training methods and experience levels.
The lack of available new talent makes it competitive for employers to recruit medical staff, as they have to look attractive without offering the highest salaries. Fortunately, recruiting software simplifies the hiring process and increases candidate pools so that you can fill your talent pipeline with the best candidates for the job.
2. Retail
Top retail positions available right now: Retail Salespersons, First-Line Supervisors, Retail Customer Service.
A quick overview of the retail market today, comes from studies performed by Retaildive.com:
- Retail sales in the U.S. could top $4.3 trillion in 2021, increasing 6.5% to 8.2%, according to the National Retail Federation’s annual estimates.
- Coloring the optimism of those figures are increasing vaccinations against COVID-19 and the accompanying re-opening of the economy.
- Early results showed that retail sales grew 6.7% to a little over $4 trillion in 2020, roughly double NRF’s pre-pandemic forecast for the year. Online and other non-store sales spiked by nearly 22% to $969.4 billion.
What does all of this mean for the job market? According to the Retail Info Systems, or RISNews.com,
Retail trade lost 38,000 jobs in January, after adding 135,000 jobs in December.
In addition to job losses, in the face of COVID-19, retail employees’ safety has been pushed to top of mind for c-suite executives. And many workers have faced challenges both professional and personal in an unprecedented year.
Despite all this, some companies have risen to the challenge — attracting and retaining talented employees, while keeping their wellbeing and safety in mind.
To pinpoint the companies liked best by employees Forbes partnered with market research company Statista for its annual ranking of America’s Best Employers. The ranking is divided into two lists: one for the top large companies with more than 5,000 U.S. employees, and another for the top midsize companies with 1,000 to 5,000.
3. Administrative
Receptionists – According to bls.gov, employment of receptionists is projected to grow 4 percent from 2019 to 2029, about as fast as the average for all occupations. While less than previous years, overall job opportunities are expected be good, especially in healthcare industries, particularly in the offices of physicians, dentists, and other healthcare practitioners. Of the 1.1 million receptionist jobs held in 2019, the Healthcare and Social Assistance industry employed 46% of those positions.
Medical Secretaries – Employment growth is projected for medical secretaries, primarily due to the growth of the healthcare industry. For example, baby boomers will require more medical services as they age. Medical secretaries will be needed to handle administrative tasks related to billing and insurance processing of Medicare and other claims.. The reasons stated is the continuing growth of the aging baby-boom population which will continue to increase demand for preventive medical services, which are often provided by physicians. As their practices expand, physicians will hire more assistants to perform routine administrative and clinical duties, allowing the physicians to see more patients, the handbook notes.
Customer Service Representatives – According to bls.gov, employment of customer service representatives is actually projected to decline 2 percent from 2019 to 2029. While over the course of the next decade, these positions will decline, right now in 2021, they’re on the rise. Despite the projected decline in employment, job prospects for customer service representatives are expected to be good because of the need to replace workers who leave the occupation and also the need for in-house customer service representatives who handle complex inquiries such as refunding accounts or confirming insurance coverage.
4. Software
The software industry has always been a top field to work in, but it has grown to majestic proportions thanks to the rise in internet usage. Consumer needs are driving innovation, and the software companies are doing their best to stay staffed with enough engineers to meet the demand.
Nearly half of all IT respondents said they plan to hire for programming and application development skills in the next twelve months, making it the number one skill in Computerworld’s Forecast Survey. Likewise, “software engineer” was the most in-demand job title across all industries, according to job site Glassdoor, with a base salary of $96,392 and a staggering 99,055 openings—roughly nine times that of the next highest-paying, in-demand job. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 22.8 percent employment growth for software developers between now and 2022—significantly higher than the national average for all occupations.
Top Tech Companies Hiring Right Now:
E*Trade
Samsung Electronics America
Cap Tech
Splice
Brex
Vizio
Grubhub
For a full list, here: https://www.themuse.com/advice/great-tech-companies-hiring-now
“We’re very bullish on hiring in 2021, particularly in tech,” said Julia Pollak, a labor economist at ZipRecruiter. “There are lots of reasons to be very, very optimistic about what’s going to happen in tech. One is that obviously the vaccine news is the big reason—there’s sort of an end to the pandemic in sight now.”
Americans who have saved money staying home during the pandemic are poised to spend more once it’s over. Additionally, many large employers, like Oracle, have moved their headquarters to lower-cost areas or taken steps to make remote work more permanent, as was the case with Pinterest, which paid $90 million to terminate its San Francisco office lease.
5. Construction and Real Estate
According to US News, the construction industry is booming, and we’ve seen a number of contractors searching for employees to fill a wide range of positions. These include superintendents, project managers, designers and laborers.
“People are spending more time in their homes,” US News comments. Remote workers no longer have a commute, and families are spending less on entertainment. That frees up money for home renovations, additions or enhancements.
Others are looking for entirely new houses, meaning job opportunities for real estate agents. Existing home sales are at the highest level since 2006, and new home sales have been strong during 2020 as well. While it remains to be seen whether the housing market can sustain its current levels, low mortgage rates seem likely to continue to entice potential homebuyers in the near future.
6. Information Technology
ZipRecruiter reports that the U.S. technology sector is booming. By our calculations, the ten largest U.S. tech companies have a combined market capitalization of over $5 trillion today, up from just $0.8 trillion in 2010, and employ more than 1.7 million workers, up from about 0.84 million. Although many are multinational companies, most employ a large majority of their workers within the U.S.
Tech opportunities expand to new industries and cities
One reason job seekers are flocking to tech is that tech job opportunities are emerging in an ever-wider range of industries as entrepreneurs apply innovations in cloud computing and AI to new problems. For example, there are rising numbers of jobs for software developers and web developers in fields ranging from mining and agriculture to entertainment and education. At the same time, traditional retailers, like Walmart and Nordstrom, are becoming incredibly technologically advanced companies, with larger software engineering and user experience design teams than most tech companies.
Tech employers’ competitive advantages
Tech employers have largely managed to overcome hiring difficulties plaguing other industries because of some unique competitive advantages.
1. Exciting work
One is the nature of the work. Many job seekers are excited at the prospect of working in a growing sector that is tackling complex problems and changing the world.
2. Tech culture
Another is the allure of tech culture—the ability to work in a dynamic environment where there is constant pressure to innovate and succeed, but where you can wear jeans and sneakers to work, bring your dog to the office, and enjoy kombucha on tap. ZipRecruiter data show that employers are increasingly advertising lifestyle perks in job postings to entice job seekers. The percentage of companies offering at least one kind of perk–such as remote work, laundry services, gym memberships, tuition reimbursement, dog friendly offices, or cold brew–went from 25.5% in 2017 to 26.8% in 2018, and to 28.6% in the first quarter of 2019, with tech companies driving much of the growth.
3. Compensation in stock options
The third is compensation. The average salary listed in ZipRecruiter job postings for tech jobs, including those which do not require college degrees, increased 8.8% from $60,169 in 2017 to $65,478 in 2018. But many employees in tech companies also receive equity awards as part of their compensation packages. In a period when tech stocks have been performing well, tech companies have a competitive advantage in hiring and are able to use less cash compensation to attract top talent. The burst of initial public offerings (IPOs) in 2018 and 2019 that created multiple new tech millionaires has only made landing a tech job more appealing.
4. Stable work arrangements
A fourth, perhaps ironically, is job security. While other expanding industries (such as professional and business services, healthcare, and transportation and warehousing) are increasing their reliance on independent contractors and temporary workers to meet rising demand, tech is the notable exception. The share of tech job postings that are for contractors is falling. Perhaps to compensate for the inherent riskiness of tech startup jobs, tech companies are increasingly courting job seekers by offering permanent jobs with benefits.
7. Finance
Crawford Thomas Finance Recruiters
Execu Search Group reports, with December quickly approaching, many employers are looking to hit their year-end hiring goals. If you want to take advantage of this surplus of opportunities, however, this doesn’t mean you should take a casual approach to job searching during this peak hiring season for the financial services industry.
“As the fiscal year ends, many companies are looking to spend the rest of their yearly budget through hiring,” says Jesse Blumenau, Associate at the Financial Services Division at The Execu Search Group. “While you may think that this will give you your choice in opportunities, it really means more competition for you. With a slower workload and more time to dedicate to job searching from October through Thanksgiving, many of your peers will have the same idea as you.”
Since there are so many candidates looking for a fresh start come the new year, you’ll need to do your best to stand out from the competition to find the right job opportunity. Below are a few tips to help you navigate your job search during this peak hiring season.
Network to build connections
Building relationships are key if you want to stand out from the crowd during your job search. That’s why it’s so important to put yourself out there and attend networking events. “Networking can be a game changer during your job search,” says Jesse. “Not all job opportunities can be found online, and in many cases, knowing the right person can help you get your foot in the door.”
Work with a recruiter
Not only is this time period a peak hiring season, but it’s also a stressful time of year with the holidays quickly approaching. If you need help navigating your job search, you may want to talk to a recruiter who can help. They can help you access roles that aren’t available online, tailor your resume and provide you with interview tips and career advice.
Looking for a recruiting firm to help build your team?
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