After ending the year on a low note, hiring looks much more promising at the start of the year for the tech industry.
By Zee Johnson
Manpower Group’s newly released 2023 Q1 Employment Outlook Survey found that despite recent headlines about the tech industry’s layoff troubles, for the first quarter of 2023, the IT sector is expected to have the greatest hiring demand (35%), followed by the financials and real estate (28%) and energy and utilities (26%) industries.
These figures come just as the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its Jobs Report that showed substantial job growth in December, making 2022 the second-best year for the labor market since 1939 when recordings began.
This is great improvement for the IT industry. In November 2022, big tech companies like Amazon, Facebook, Lyft, Tesla and more issued tens of thousands of layoffs in an effort to cut costs during the economic downturn. Now, it is expected that 5 million physical jobs may soon be displaced by machines and 97 million new roles are likely to emerge, Manpower Group’s report says.
With acquisition looking up, tech leaders aren’t looking to fill roles with anyone who applies—they’re looking for specific qualifications that include:
- Critical Thinking and Analysis
- Creativity and Originality
- Reasoning and Problem-Solving
- Reliability and Self-Discipline
- Resilience and Adaptability
While the IT industry has promising outlooks on acquisition, some industries are having a tough time. Despite being very optimistic about hiring abilities (75%), the consumer goods and services industry faces a talent shortage where 75% of employers report difficulty finding the hard and soft skills needed. Likewise, the industrials and materials industry has also been challenged by the lack of skilled workers (76%).
Jonas Prising, Chairman and CEO of Manpower Group, thinks that the industries that are expected to do well with hiring even in a tough economy are the ones who have figured out ways around tumult. He also thinks that those struggling must act quickly and intentionally. “Amidst a cost-of-living crisis, and a depreciation in real-time wages, companies need to think more than ever about attracting and retaining their workers, that might start with pay, yet our data tells us flexibility, career development, and purpose-driven work is worth up to 5% of salary to many workers,” he says in the report. “There are lots of levers available for companies to attract and retain the talent they need to stay competitive.”
The report also found that micro-organizations, companies with under 10 employees, are half as optimistic about hiring during Q1 (13%) as large organizations with more than 250 employees (29%). And when it came to countries overall, the survey saw that the greatest hiring intentions were in the Americas, with Panama (39%), Costa Rica (35%), and Canada (34%) rounding out the top three. Singapore (33%) and Guatemala (32%) were fourth and fifth, respectively.
