More than half the employers in a new poll say they plan to hire full-time employees in the next 12 months, according to research released on Tuesday that could spell relief for unemployed US workers.
Four in 10 employers plan to hire contract, temporary or project workers, and another four in 10 will be hiring part-time employees, the survey conducted for Robert Half International, a staffing company, and CareerBuilder.com, an online career site, shows.
The study found 53 percent of employers said they expect to hire full-time employees over the next 12 months.
Some 14.5 million US workers are unemployed, recent US government statistics show.
Despite the high number of potential job applicants, six in 10 employers said they would be willing to negotiate higher pay with qualified candidates.
Many employers also reported difficulty finding skilled people to fill openings and said on average, 44 percent of the resumes they receive are from unqualified candidates.
The areas most likely to be adding jobs are technology, customer service and sales, the survey found.
Asked what characteristics they seek most in applicants, employers said they want multi-taskers, self-starters with initiative and creative problem solvers.
When the economy improves, 28 percent of employers said they were most likely to fill entry-level jobs, and 32 percent said they would fill staff-level jobs. Only 7 percent said they would fill management jobs, only 2 percent said they would fill director jobs and 1 percent would fill executive jobs.
Meanwhile, the ailing US Postal Service (USPS) said on Tuesday it was offering buyouts to 30,000 employees to slash US$500 million in labor costs as it battles slumping mail volumes and heavy losses.
The USPS, an independent federal agency, said it had negotiated a deal with two of its employee unions to offer certain employees a financial incentive to retire or resign before the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
The buyout offer targets about 4.5 percent of the agency’s workforce, which numbers 656,000, its Web site shows.
USPS said that advances in mail processing technology and the continuing US recession had led it “to more aggressively match work hours with work load.”
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