Greater Hartford business leaders are optimistic about the economy and a significant number plan to expand — albeit cautiously — during the next 12 months, signaling positive job growth for professional workers.
Many companies have reached the limits on how much they can produce without hiring more workers, says Larry Brown, a managing partner at executive search firm Horton International LLC in West Hartford.
Brown has been involved in executive search since 1994 and focuses on finding senior level workers for financial services, manufacturing and insurance companies.
“The job market in the Greater Hartford area has shown significant growth since the start of the year,” said Brown.
“Based on current indicators, it is anticipated that the job market will continue to improve through the remainder of 2010 with companies adding more executive level jobs,” said Brown. “Executives seeking positions are seeing many more job opportunities than existed in 2009.”
Companies needed to scale their businesses to market last year and four out of 10 employers say they had to lay off workers, according to CareerBuilder’s 2010 Job Forecast, which surveyed 2,700 hiring managers and human resource professionals nationwide.
Among the companies that had lay-offs last year, 32 percent plan to bring back workers sometime in 2010, according to the report.
At Horton International, which represents 100 clients in 25 countries, hiring activity is up about 30 percent compared to last summer.
Brown is spending more time these days seeking qualified candidates to fill jobs for a majority of the firm’s clients, including two local companies.
Executives at both Middlefield-based Zygo Corp., a supplier of optical metrology instruments, and Stanadyne in Windsor, which manufactures diesel fuel injection products, told Brown they are ready to ramp up hiring efforts.
Anticipated job growth is strongest in manufacturing, technology and pharmaceuticals, according to Brown. Banking, insurance and real estate jobs in the Hartford region will continue to lag this year as the financial sector and housing market recovers, he said.
While the trends are promising, employers are taking the slow approach to beefing up their workforce. In fact, a Robert Half International study published earlier this year shows that employers take anywhere from 1.5 to 14 weeks to decide on a candidate once they have interviewed them.
“There is this idea that we have so many unemployed people out there right now that companies can take their time and be selective about who they hire,” said Brown. “They wait for someone they believe is the ideal worker.”
“But there is no such thing as the ideal worker,” he said. “If an employer has interviewed qualified candidates, then they should make their choice sooner rather than later, especially if they have a deadline on filling the position.”
