The US IT and engineering staffing market is vital to the functioning of several key industries within the US economy, such as banking, heavy machinery, medicine, and life sciences. While the market provided job and career prospects for nearly 16 million employees prior to the pandemic, it is currently recovering from the effects of COVID-19.
Read on to know about the present challenges for the US IT and engineering staffing market, how companies are responding, and why offshore staffing services are a favorable solution.
Challenges for the US IT and engineering staffing market
The COVID-19 pandemic affected the US job market in two key ways:
- The pandemic forced many businesses to suspend operations or shut down entirely. This led to large-scale unemployment. According to a US Bureau of Labor Statistics report, over 29 million people were rendered unable to work in May 2020, nearly four months after the Coronavirus reached American soil.
- A lack of manpower, along with pandemic-related policies, such as staggering workforces, led to lowered industrial production rates, which in turn contributed to rising inflation rates. As inflation lowered purchasing power, many employees continue to face diminished wage growth, and an increase in the cost of living and consumer goods.
While the US unemployment rate has fallen since September 2021, when President Joe Biden ended pandemic policies (Fig. 1), inflation rates continued to rise (Fig. 2), with many in the workforce seeking higher salaries in order to return to positive wage growth. This now leads to the possibility of another Great Resignation, as companies are now forced to raise wages in order to match and exceed consumer expenses or risk losing high-quality employees to competitors.
The declining unemployment rate in the US, between September 2021 and August 2022
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics
Increasing inflation rate in the US, between September 2021 and August 2022
Source: US Bureau of Labor Statistics
The US IT and engineering staffing industries have responded to these market conditions by investing in talent development and acquisition from beyond American borders, while maintaining support for remote work solutions that became necessary during the pandemic. Here are some of the highlights:
IT Staffing
- Globalization Partners, a large US-based tech company, recently dipped into the Northern Ireland talent pool to fill its roster with 75 new employees, at an average salary of £64,000.
- The US Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) is awarding an $800,000 grant to ConPRmetidos (a non-profit organization) in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in order to strengthen collaboration between the Puerto Rican private and public sectors.
- Microsoft is set to upgrade its Chinese campuses, and increase its 9,000-strong Chinese employee base, despite the US’ decoupling push.
Engineering Staffing
- The engineering sector is seeing high demand for technical and digital skills, with engineers increasingly valuing remote and hybrid positions.
- Aerotek’s scientific and clinical business in Europe recently rebranded as a part of Actalent, which is ranked by Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA) as the largest engineering and life sciences staffing firm in the US. Both companies are a part of the Allegis Group, and the move is projected to bolster Actalent’s existing Europe-based engineering services.
As the US IT and engineering staffing industries look beyond American borders in order to increase their global footprint and recruit international talent, offshore recruitment services providers such as IMS Group become key investment opportunities for American staffing companies. They provide a wide range of benefits to companies interested in reducing costs, while improving operational efficiency. Some of these are listed below:
Our clients realise upto 50% Cost
Savings when they partner with us
Benefits of offshore staffing services support:
offshore recruitment services organizations, such as IMS Group, provide the following key benefits to the US IT and engineering staffing industries:
- Reducing the need for permanent, in-house staff, and bringing down the added costs, like new equipment, technology, onboarding, training, and overall infrastructure, of onboarding new staff.
- Improving business efficiency by freeing up the employees to focus on scaling the business.
- Providing expertise in a range of staffing operations, such as sourcing, screening, mapping projected employee demand, database regeneration, administration work, and more, at cost-effective prices.
- Following the industry’s Best Practices, such as operating software like Vendor Management System (VMS), which allows companies to set clear targets for offshore vendors.
- Carrying out credentialing and compliance operations, in order to ensure that partner companies do not face any legal hurdles.
IMS Group helps in reducing onboarding costs by up to 50%, and provides clients with resources that have been pre-trained to match and exceed industry standards. We are experts with over 16 years of experience in the recruitment industry, and follow market trends and Best Practices closely, in order to provide high-quality staffing support to our partners.
Conclusion
As the US IT and engineering staffing industries look outwards, offshore staffing support has become a valuable investment, with organizations like us performing a variety of tasks geared towards improving your operational efficiency and market performance.
IMS Group experts will be at TechServe Executive Summit 2022, where the event will focus on some of today’s most critical topics concerning these industries, such as building and retaining a high-performing staffing team.
Meet us at the event, from November 7 to 9, 2022, at the La Quinta Resort & Club, Palm Springs, California, to know more about how you can focus on core business functions and strategic growth.
Get in touch with us prior to the conference by writing to info@imspeople.com
