Nearly half of hiring managers to recruit new workers in Q3

CareerBuilder.com, the nation's largest online job site with more than 20 million unique visitors and more than 1 million jobs, released the results of its latest survey tracking projected hiring and job search activities for the upcoming quarter. The survey, titled "Q3 2006 Job Forecast," was conducted from June 6 to June 16 of more than 2,200 workers, including over 1000 hiring managers.

Hiring Highlights

"As economic growth shows signs of moderating, job creation levels in the U.S. have dipped in recent months. While some employers are proceeding with caution in terms of recruitment plans, others are expecting an uptick in hiring in the fall," said Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder.com. "One-third of hiring managers say they are allocating more money to their recruitment budgets in the second half of the year, compared to the first half. Forty-seven percent of hiring managers expect to add headcount in the third quarter, while 13 percent plan to eliminate staff."\

Amount of Employees Being Hired

While half of hiring managers plan to hire less than 10 new employees, three in 10 expect to add more than 20 and one in five expect to add more than 50.

Hiring Cycle

Hiring managers continue to struggle with finding qualified candidates. Twenty-two percent of hiring managers say it takes them one to two months to fill an open position, while 11 percent spend two to three months. One in 10 hiring managers surveyed say their hiring cycles run three months or longer.

Most Popular Resources Used to Recruit

Hiring managers are employing a variety of tools to find qualified candidates, with online resources ranking most popular. Twenty-eight percent of hiring managers surveyed said they use online resources most often to find qualified candidates, compared to 23 percent who use newspaper classifieds, 19 percent who rely on employee referrals and 10 percent who use professional recruiters.

Job Changes

Close to one in five workers plan to take advantage of the tightening labor market and change jobs in the next six months. One in 10 plan to do so in the third quarter.

The current labor conditions are driving up the number of workers who are passively looking for a new job. Fifty-seven percent of workers report they are not actively searching for a new position, but would be open to a new job if they came across the right opportunity.