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Hiring for jobs in Rhode Island increases

Posted on April 5, 2012

For the first time in years, hiring is picking up, and jobs in Rhode Island are also increasing.

According to CareerBuilder’s latest nationwide survey, one-third of employers added full-time, permanent employees in the first quarter of this year, on par with 2007 and the highest increase reported since the recession began. The momentum is expected to continue with 30 percent of employers planning to add new full-time, permanent staff in April through June.

The national survey, which was conducted by Harris Interactive from February 9 to March 2, 2012, included more than 2,000 hiring managers and human resource professionals across industries and company sizes.

“We have moved from an anemic job market to one that is stable and growing,” said Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder. “While still cautious, employers are feeling better about the state of the U.S. economy and the debt situation in Europe. Forty-one percent of companies reported their sales have increased over the last six months, which is helping to fuel greater confidence in hiring. The amount of job listings we’re seeing for key categories on CareerBuilder.com are similar to that of 2007. All indicators point to steady improvement in the job market in the second quarter and beyond.”

The study also showed there is increased competition for talent among employers. Of employers who recruited for positions in the last year, more than half (56 percent) reported that a candidate rejected a job offer from their organization. Forty-one percent of those attributed the rejection to their inability to provide the candidate’s desired salary while 22 percent said they didn’t offer the position quickly enough and the candidate was already hired somewhere else.

In a previous survey completed in December 2011, 24 percent of employers planned to hire full-time, permanent employees in the first quarter of 2012. The number of employers who actually added headcount in the first quarter of 2012 was 33 percent, significantly higher than what was initially expected and up from 28 percent in Q1 2011.

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