CHICAGO, July 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- At the halfway point in 2015, both employers and job seekers are feeling confident in their prospects, according to CareerBuilder's Midyear U.S. Job Forecast. Nearly half of employers plan to hire full-time, permanent staff over the next six months and one-third plan to hire temporary or contract workers – both improvements over 2014.

View the full report here.

At the same time, workers are looking to take advantage of a labor market that has produced 245,000 jobs per month on average in the last year¹. Three in ten workers (29 percent) plan to change jobs in the next 12 months, up from 25 percent last year.

"There's a favorable dynamic happening in the labor market today," said Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder and co-author of The Talent Equation. "Companies are feeling more financially secure and increasing their headcount. This is creating a more competitive hiring environment, which is having a positive impact on wages and the labor force participation rate. We expect to see continued strength in these trends with nearly half of employers looking to add staff and raise starting salaries in the months ahead."

• 49 percent of employers plan to hire full-time, permanent employees in the second half of 2015, up from 47 percent last year
• 28 percent plan to hire part-time employees in the second half of 2015, up from 27 percent last year
• 34 percent plan to hire temporary or contract workers in the second half of 2015, up from 33 percent last year

The national surveys, which were conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder from May 14 to June 3, 2015, included representative samples of 2,321 hiring managers and human resources managers and 3,321 full-time, U.S. workers across industries and company sizes.

Starting Salaries
Nearly half of employers (47 percent) expect to increase starting salaries on job offers over the next 12 months. Around 1 in 6 employers will raise starting salaries by 5 percent or more.

Hot Areas for Hiring
Information Technology (56 percent), Health Care (56 percent), Hospitality (54 percent), Financial Services (52 percent), Manufacturing (52 percent) and Retail (50 percent) are among industries expected to outperform the national average for full-time, permanent hiring in the back half of the year.

The top functional areas where employers will be adding jobs in the second half of 2015 include:

• Customer Service – 31 percent of hiring managers
• Sales – 23 percent
• Information Technology – 22 percent
• Production – 18 percent
• Accounting/Finance – 12 percent
• Marketing – 11 percent
• Human Resources – 9 percent

Drilling down into specifics, some of the in-demand areas employers will be recruiting for include those tied to mobile, search or cloud technology; cyber security; social media; wellness; financial regulation; managing and interpreting big data; content strategy for the Web; alternative energy sources and robotics.

Small Business Hiring
Hiring managers in small businesses are indicating a greater sense of confidence when it comes to recruitment plans. Hiring is expected to increase three percentage points over last year for companies with 50 or fewer employees.

• 50 or fewer employees – 27 percent hiring full-time, permanent employees, up from 24 percent last year
• 250 or fewer employees – 37 percent hiring full-time, permanent employees, up from 35 percent last year

Among larger companies with more than 500 employees, 3 in 5 hiring managers (62 percent) plan to add full-time, permanent employees, up from 61 percent last year.

Hiring By Region
Comparing regions, the Northeast displayed the biggest increase in the percentage of employers planning to add full-time, permanent headcount in the second half of the year. Hiring in the other regions is expected to experience a slight shift or stay in line with last year.

• Northeast – 52 percent hiring full-time, permanent employees, up from 48 percent last year
• South – 49 percent hiring full-time, permanent employees, up from 48 percent last year
• Midwest – 46 percent hiring full-time, permanent employees, on par with last year
• West – 46 percent hiring full-time, permanent employees, down from 47 percent last year

Hiring in Q2 2015
Thirty-nine percent of employers added full-time, permanent headcount in the second quarter, up from 36 percent last year. Nine percent decreased headcount – an improvement from 10 percent last year – while 51 percent made no change and 1 percent were unsure.

Hiring in Q3 2015
Looking ahead, 34 percent of employers plan to hire full-time, permanent employees in the third quarter, up from 31 percent last year. Seven percent expect to downsize staffs – an improvement from 9 percent last year – while 54 percent anticipate no change and 5 percent are undecided.

¹ U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Totals may not equal 100 percent due to rounding or the ability to choose more than one response.

Survey Methodology
The surveys were conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder among 2,321 hiring managers and human resources managers ages 18 and over (employed full-time, not self-employed, non-government) and 3,321 workers ages 18 and over (employed full-time, not self-employed, non-government) between May 14 and June 3, 2015 (percentages for some questions are based on a subset, based on their responses to certain questions). With pure probability samples of 2,321 and 3,321, one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have sampling errors of +/- 2.03 and +/- 1.7 percentage points, respectively. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies.

About CareerBuilder®
As the global leader in human capital solutions, CareerBuilder specializes in HR software as a service to help companies with every step of the recruitment process from acquire to hire. Its online career site, CareerBuilder.com®, is the largest in the United States with more than 24 million unique visitors and 1 million jobs. CareerBuilder works with the world's top employers, providing job distribution, sourcing, workflow, CRM, data and analytics in one pre-hire platform. Owned by TEGNA Inc. (NYSE:TGNA), Tribune Company and The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI), CareerBuilder and its subsidiaries operate in the United States, Europe, South America, Canada and Asia. For more information, visit www.careerbuilder.com.

Media Contact
Jennifer Grasz
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jennifer.grasz@careerbuilder.com
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SOURCE CareerBuilder