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Study Find Capital Region Companies Bullish About Hiring In 2020

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A new report says Capital Region employers are bullish on hiring for 2020.

Eight in ten Capital Region employers say they are optimistic about job growth for 2020, even as filling open positions remains a significant challenge, given the dramatically low national unemployment rate.

That’s according to Miriam Dushane of Alaant Workforce Solutions.    "Companies are still looking to hire people. They are very optimistic about job growth for 2020. 70 percent of hiring managers actually said that their hiring had increased by quite a bit the second half of this year, and about 59 percent expect to continue to see hiring rise next year. However, even though they want to hire people for their organizations, it's still a significant challenge for them to be able to do that. 92 percent of hiring officials said that it was a significant challenge or challenge to find the right people for their organization. And that relates mostly to salary and wage demands and skills gap."

Survey respondents indicated a simple work ethic, understanding how to work with others, collaboration and meeting deadlines are equally important. 

The survey asked if talk about recession, trade issues and the upcoming presidential election had any bearing on employer hiring decisions.   "90 percent said talk of recession does not limit their local hiring needs and 95 percent said they really didn't have any impacts or felt any impacts or, you know, things that might limit their hiring anything around the trade issues or the presidential election. So, you know, resoundingly locally, people in this area who are hiring aren't really taking that into consideration and it's not limiting their plans for next year at this point."

43 percent of survey respondents said it takes two months to fill an open position.     "I think it's a mix, and like it says 43 percent says it takes two months or longer. Well, I'm seeing just the flip side as well. I'm seeing organizations that are moving quicker and are moving faster and sometimes some of our clients are losing out to other employers because they’re taking, their process is too lengthy, and those people who are on the job market have already been gobbled up by another organization."
For the first time since Alaant introduced the index in fall 2015, the list of fastest-growing job opportunities was topped by health care at 36 percent, including 16 percent in clinical positions and 20 percent in non-clinical positions. That was followed by IT at 19 percent (10 percent in development, 9 percent in infrastructure), customer service/sales/marketing at 10 percent, and engineering at 7 percent. 

The Fall 2019 Alaant Hiring Index polled human resource professionals, business owners and hiring managers of all size companies in various industries on what they've been experiencing in their workplaces.

Dave Lucas is WAMC’s Capital Region Bureau Chief. Born and raised in Albany, he’s been involved in nearly every aspect of local radio since 1981. Before joining WAMC, Dave was a reporter and anchor at WGY in Schenectady. Prior to that he hosted talk shows on WYJB and WROW, including the 1999 series of overnight radio broadcasts tracking the JonBenet Ramsey murder case with a cast of callers and characters from all over the world via the internet. In 2012, Dave received a Communicator Award of Distinction for his WAMC news story "Fail: The NYS Flood Panel," which explores whether the damage from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee could have been prevented or at least curbed. Dave began his radio career as a “morning personality” at WABY in Albany.
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