The second half of the year is expected to be a better cluster of months for companies looking to hire.
In fact, more than half of U.S. companies say they're adding new positions for the remainder of 2024. According to the business consulting firm Robert Half and their State of U.S. Hiring Survey, 52% of companies plan to add new permanent roles while 57% expect to hire contract workers, despite a slowing job market.
Another 43% of companies plan to fill for vacated positions, and 57% said they plan to increase the number of contract professionals on staff, down 10 percentage points from the first half of 2024.
Brandi Clark, senior regional director with talent solutions and business consulting firm Robert Half, said numbers for Houston are looking good too.
"49% of Houston hiring managers that we spoke with plan to add new permeant roles in the second half of the year and 53% of them plan to increase the number of contract professionals," she said.
The optimism is there. Clark said companies want and need to fill vacancies to limit employee burnout and boost production.
"We still see a lot of hiring happening out there, it's an exciting thing and there's consistent demand for top talent," said Clark.
Meanwhile, the July jobs report fell below predictions with just 114,000 jobs added last month. The unemployment rate also rose to 4.3%, the highest mark since October 2021.
The Houston economy is very diverse with hiring happening in a wide variety of industries. Oil and gas continues to do well as manufacturing and the public sector with education and government jobs show some promise too. Clark said employers are trying to nab the best potential employees to fill their vacancy while keeping the hiring process smooth.
"In our market, you still need to move quickly on a top candidate," Clark said. "A lot of employers get frustrated because a candidate they're interested in, they are putting them through their process which might be lengthy and then they lose their top person because they took another offer."
Employers who offer more competitive salaries, good benefits and a solid work/life balance tend to land the more ideal candidates. Hiring younger people has become more of a focus too with companies losing their aging workers, so Clark said companies want to act fast, but be efficient when hiring their next employee.