Job Outlook for 2012 Improving

An annual employment forecast released by CareerBuilder.com says that close to 25 percent of hiring managers are planning on hiring full-time, permanent employees once 2012 hits. In the survey, over 3,000 hiring managers and human resource professionals across industries and company sizes were asked questions. Four trends have been identified from the statistics found by the survey.

The first trend is that compensation for skilled positions is getting much more competitive. Employers surveyed think that the compensation levels will increase for current staff and prospective staffers as skilled talent recruiting becomes much more competitive. Close to 62 percent of employers are planning to increase compensation for existing employees while 32 percent will issue higher starting salaries for new staffers.

Turnover that is voluntary is increasing according to those surveyed. Thirty-four percent, or one-third, of human resource managers surveyed say that voluntary turnover at their companies increased in 2011. The top two reasons for employees resigning are the need for higher compensation and the feeling of being over-worked. In 2011, 30 percent of employers say they lost some of their top performers to other companies and 43 percent say they are worried that other top performers will switch companies in 2012.

The skills gap is being bridged by training of the employed and the unemployed by employers. Thirty-eight percent of employers are planning to train people who do not have experience in their industry and then hire them for positions in their company in 2012.

The groups of employees being targeted by employers include women, African Americans, and Hispanic workers. Twenty-nine percent of employers claim that they will are focusing on recruiting diverse workers because of the benefits the company receives for hiring these groups of workers. Close to 20 percent of employers will target Hispanic workers and African American workers to work in their company. The same number of employers will be recruiting higher numbers of women. In 2012, 44 percent of employers are planning to hire bilingual workers.

In the survey, 23 percent of employers plan to hire full-time, permanent employees beginning in 2012. This is pretty much unchanged compared to 2011 and it is a higher number than the 20 percent from 2010. Close to 7 percent of employers are planning to decrease their staff, which is the same from 2011, but is an improvement from the 9 percent in 2010. Eleven percent are unsure and 59 percent do not anticipate any changes.

In the survey, more small businesses are showing confidence in hiring and retaining staffers for 2012. Across small businesses, plans to remove staffers dropped by two percent while hiring plans increased by two percentage points among small companies with 50 or fewer staffers.

There is a higher amount of employers in the West that plan to hire for 2012 than in other regions of the country. In the West, 24 percent of employers plan to hire full-time, permanent staffers in 2012.