About 84 percent of hiring managers in the United States are positive about their company's hiring outlook for the first half of next year, with 52 percent feeling optimistic, 46 percent hopeful, 45 percent confident, and 38 percent satisfied.
This is according to a recent Express Employment Professionals-Harris Poll survey.
"There seems to be more optimism in the market after a slowdown from the crazy highs of Covid and post-pandemic activity," said Bill Sofio, an owner of Express and Specialized Recruiting Group franchises in North Carolina, about 2025 hiring predictions. "There was a year or two of settling down and it feels like a more normal business cycle is forthcoming."
Most hiring managers (63 percent) anticipate increasing their workforce, with 19 percent planning significant increases and 44 percent expecting slight growth. Comparatively, in 2024, 63 percent of hiring managers also planned to increase their employee count, indicating consistent optimism over the past year.
The primary drivers for increasing headcount include managing increased volumes of work (52 percent), filling newly created positions (46 percent) and addressing employee turnover (43 percent).
Additionally, companies are looking to handle expansion into new categories or markets (33 percent), acquire expertise in new areas (30 percent), manage work caused by AI concerns (22 percentrehire for positions that were previously cut (22 percent), manage work caused by cybersecurity concerns (20 percent) and adapt to changes resulting from new legislative or policy implementations (16 percent).
Thirty percent of US hiring managers say their company plans to maintain current workforce levels in the first half of 2025, mirroring the 29% who reported similar intentions in 2024. Meanwhile, only 6 percent anticipate decreasing their workforce, consistent with the 7 percent of companies that planned to cut staff in 2024. The primary reasons for these workforce decreases include cost-cutting measures (68 percent), company restructuring (22 percent) and aligning with decreased demand (21 percent).
The Job Insights survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Express Employment Professionals Nov. 11 to 26, 2024, among 1,001 US hiring decision-makers.
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