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5 Recruiting Trends You Need to Know in 2019

An old colleague of mine—an HR specialist and recruitment expert—once told me that finding the right job candidate is a lot like dating. You catch a glimpse; you meet; you talk; you prove yourself (or you don’t); you commit to a relationship (or you don’t). It makes sense, right?

But I’m a gamblin’ man, so for me, the ol’ staffing industry is more like a poker game. Some players are just starting out. Others are starting over. And others, well, we don’t always know what those other folks are up to. The point is: it doesn’t matter where you’re sitting at the table—whether you’re a job seeker or a hiring manager—everyone’s got a stake in the game.

Are you still with me?

The staffing industry, like poker, is fraught with uncertainty. That means the more we know, the better we’ll do. And the better we’re prepared, the more we’ll achieve.

So, how can we take the guesswork out of recruiting solutions? How can we put ourselves in a winning position? We must read the table, prepare a strategy, and go to work.

Before you let that deal go down, get a look at the staffing trends that will help you cash out big-time in 2019.

  1. The staffing industry is flush with action.
    Staffing Industry Analyst (SIA) projected the staffing market to reach $150 billion in 2018, a figure that analysts predict will grow by 3% this year. If these trends continue, business leaders should waste no time exploring recruiting solutions for their organizations in 2019.
  1. Job candidates hold all the cards.
    High-quality job candidates know what they’re worth, where they’ll fit, and how they prefer to communicate. If an employer fails to impress in any of these areas, a job candidate will likely look elsewhere. What’s worse: current employees could leave, too.
  1. Non-technical jobs are making a comeback.
    According to an October 2018 study by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, industrial jobs such as transportation, warehousing, construction, and manufacturing outpaced white-collar jobs. Despite this resurgence, though, there’s still a skills gap that employers should prepare to bridge.
  1. Freelancers are calling, raising, and winning.
    By the year 2020, freelancers could make up the majority of our workforce. And why not? More and more people are freelancing because they get to set their own hours, pick their own clients, and write off a ton of expenses for tax purposes.
  1. Candidates are all-in on machine learning.
    When it comes to communicating with job candidates, technology is the way to go. Chatbots akin to Amazon’s Alexa are starting to facilitate informed decision making for recruiters and talent acquisition teams. And personal AI systems such as AllyO is redefining recruitment efforts.

What kind of hand will you deal—or be dealt—in 2019? If you play your cards right, you could be in for an excellent year.

For more in-depth facts and figures regarding recruiting trends in 2019, check out our white paper: The Future of the Workforce: 2019 Trends Report.

And don’t forget to get in on the action on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.