2017 has certainly proven to be another busy and challenging year. After the highly controversial presidential election of 2016, January saw the inauguration of Donald Trump as President and the start of the Trump administration.
The inauguration saw concerns being raised over what impact and changes the new administration will bring to the staffing and recruiting industry. However, the latest release of the 2017 North American Staffing & Recruiting Trends Report₁ by Bullhorn showed that the vast majority of staffing and recruiting professionals felt bullish during 2017 with expectations of even more profitability and productivity driven by repeat clients facing talent shortages in key sectors.
The US labor market is strong, indeed the strongest it has been for decades. Unemployment was 4.1%₂ in October, its lowest rate since 2000, and the shrinking pool of job seekers is making more and more employers reliant on the temporary staffing market. Consequently, the temporary penetration rate reached a record high according to seasonally adjusted numbers released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics in November.
The role of automation continues to be a key topic in the minds of workers and businesses alike. A Pew Research Center survey₃ of 4,135 US adults conducted May 1-15, 2017, found that many Americans anticipate significant impacts from various automation technologies in the course of their lifetimes – from the widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles to the replacement of entire job categories with robot workers.
There is no doubt that advances in robotics and artificial intelligence will have the potential to automate a wide range of human activities and to dramatically reshape the way that Americans live. The jobs that will be most affected by automation in the early stages are most likely to be routine jobs that are repetitive and that don’t require much flexibility or creative reasoning.
IMS People Possible serves over 150 Leading Staffing Companies with 12 years of experience in the recruitment industry.
There is no doubt that advances in robotics and artificial intelligence will have the potential to automate a wide range of human activities and to dramatically reshape the way that Americans live. The jobs that will be most affected by automation in the early stages are most likely to be routine jobs that are repetitive and that don’t require much flexibility or creative reasoning.
The increase in US population is driving the demand for healthcare professionals and shortages of nearly all types of healthcare professionals are becoming more pronounced, and the gap of unfilled staff positions is widening. The healthcare staffing market₄ remains buoyant due to this and is expected to growth rate of 13.7 percent by 2021 reach $28.3 billion in revenue.
So 2017 has certainly been an ever-shifting period for the US recruitment sector and we will have to wait and see what 2018 will bring.
Sources:
1 https://www.bullhorn.com/resources/2017-north-american-staffing-recruiting-trends-report/
2 https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf
3 http://www.pewinternet.org/2017/10/04/automation-in-everyday-life/pi_2017-10-04_automation_0-01/
4 https://www.researchmoz.us/healthcare-staffing-market-in-us-strategic-assessment-and-forecast-till-2021-report.html
