Summer Hiring in Full Throttle

June 20, 2017 – The summer job market is upon us, and with good news: Companies are stepping up their seasonal hiring. Forty-one percent of employers plan to hire workers for the summer, a significant jump from 29 percent last year. Of those who are hiring summer workers, 34 percent are hiring a friend, 30 percent a family member, and 19 percent their child.

The national survey was conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder and included representative samples of 2,587 full-time employers (of which 2,380 are in the private sector) and 3,420 full-time workers across industries and company sizes.

Not all summer jobs are temporary. A large majority of employers hiring this summer (79 percent) say they will consider some summer hires for permanent positions, up from 76 percent last year.

“Don’t approach your summer position as if it’s only a temporary job,” said Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer at CareerBuilder. “From the start, find out what your responsibilities are, what is expected of you, and how your job impacts the company’s bottom line. You should view it as an extended job interview. This is an opportunity for the company to get to know you, to show them what you bring to their organization, and to show how you can become a valuable asset.”

Who’s Hiring This Summer

Companies with more than 500 employees displayed the most aggressive hiring plans with 45 percent looking to add new staff, compared to 31 percent last year. Thirty-seven percent of companies with 250 or fewer employees are looking to hire, compared to 27 percent in 2016. Twenty-eight percent of companies with 50 or fewer workers are hiring summer workers, compared to 23 percent last year.

Forty-eight percent of hospitality employers and 34 percent of retailers said they will be adding summer jobs this year. Although summer jobs are commonly associated with these segments, employers across industries are hiring summer help for a variety of professional and support positions including: engineering, information technology, customer service, office support, sales, manufacturing, and banking.

Employers hiring seasonal workers, comparing the 10 most populous cities:

Summer Pay is Heating up

More than three in four employers hiring for the summer (79 percent) will pay their summer hires more per hour on average — up from 74 percent in 2016. One in five employers (19 percent) plan to pay $20 or more per hour. More than three-fourths of employers hiring for the summer (76 percent) plan to offer their seasonal workers pay increases if they work with their organization for more than one summer.

For job seekers hoping to secure a seasonal position, 34 percent of employers hiring for the summer say they typically complete their hiring in May — 31 percent are already done (typically finish in April or before). Twenty percent finish in June, nine percent in July, and another seven percent in August.

Q3 Hiring

According to the latest “Employment Outlook Survey,” released last week by ManpowerGroup, U.S. employers expect hiring to pick up in the third quarter, with 24 percent planning to add staff between July and September.

Of the 11,000 U.S. employers surveyed, 70 percent expect no change in hiring plans and only four percent of employers expect workforce reductions. Nationwide, employers in all 13 industry sectors expect to add staff in the coming quarter. Industries reporting the strongest second-quarter hiring intentions are leisure & hospitality (+25 percent), wholesale & retail trade (+21 percent), mining (+18 percent), professional & business services (+18 percent), durable goods manufacturing (+17 percent), financial activities (+15 percent), construction (+14 percent), education & health services (+14 percent), government (+13 percent), information (+13 percent), nondurable goods manufacturing (+12 percent) and other services (+11 percent).

“Employers across the country are optimistic but don’t want to get ahead of themselves,” said Michael Stull, senior vice president, of Manpower North America. “In most sectors, employers reported relatively stable hiring plans with some upticks – most notably in durable goods manufacturing, where there are the strongest hiring intentions in more than nine years. Technological disruption is rapidly changing skills needs, especially in manufacturing as the marketplace transitions from typical labor to more advanced roles. To keep up, we’re seeing employers increasingly invest in training and development programs so people can learn while they earn,” he said. “We’re focused on building programs to help workers get the skills they need for tomorrow while staying employable today.”