Spotlight for Recruiting Professionals

Does an organization’s perception of the job market impact its plans to reassess its hiring needs? Results of NACE’s Job Outlook surveys seem to indicate a correlation between the two.

This year, when nearly two-thirds of respondents—63.3 percent—rated the current job market either “excellent” or “very good,” employers appeared to be more comfortable with their initial assessment of their hiring needs. Most notably, there is a drop in the group reassessing their needs on a weekly basis this year (5.1 percent) from last year (10.1 percent), when just 45.6 percent of survey respondents rated the job market either “excellent” or “very good.”

Additionally, most of the respondents that indicated “other” schedules for reassessing hiring needs—the percentage of which has climbed to 6.1 percent this year from 2.3 percent last year—either said they will not reassess their college hiring needs at all or they will only do so on an “as-needed” basis.

Still, employers are most likely to reassess these needs on a quarterly schedule, which is practically identical to last year’s result. The percentages of their colleagues that will reassess hiring needs on either a monthly or an annual basis also remain nearly unchanged.

Data for the Job Outlook 2019 survey were collected from August 1, 2018, through October 8, 2018. A total of 172 surveys were returned—an 18.5 percent response rate. The Job Outlook 2019 report is available free to members through MyNACE. Nonmembers can purchase the report through the NACE Store.

Figure 1: Employers rate the job market for 2018-19 and 2017-18 graduates

Figure 2: Employers’ plans to reassess hiring needs