Employers in Puerto Rico to Increase Hiring in First Quarter of 2024
According to the most recent ManpowerGroup Employment Expectations Survey, employers in Puerto Rico are planning to hire more staff in the first quarter of 2024, exceeding their intentions for the same period in 2023. The survey reveals that 33% of employers in Puerto Rico have intentions to hire, which is seven points higher than last year’s expectations.
Surpassing the global average of 26% of employers’ hiring expectations, Puerto Rico ranks number eight among the 41 countries surveyed. However, this figure represents a decrease compared to the hiring intention of the previous quarter, which is the period when some companies usually recruit more people due to the Christmas season.
Melissa Rivera Roena, general manager of MPG in Puerto Rico, highlighted the positive trend of employers’ intentions to hire, emphasizing the need to focus efforts to meet the high levels of talent shortage in the workforce.
The survey also analyzed hiring expectations by region, with companies in the southern region showing the highest hiring expectations at 57%, followed by the western area with 50%, the center with 41%, and the east with 22%. The northern and metropolitan areas have the lowest trends at 14% and 7%, respectively.
In terms of company size, medium-sized companies with 50-249 employees have the strongest hiring expectation at 69%, and micro-businesses with 1-10 employees at 36%, followed by large companies with 1,000-4,999 employees at 35%.
The sectors with the highest hiring intention for the first quarter of 2024 in Puerto Rico are communication services at 74%, followed by information technology companies at 64%, and manufacturing at 49%. These sectors reflect the positive hiring expectations across all economic sectors and regions of Puerto Rico.
Mónica Flores, president of ManpowerGroup for Latin America, pointed out that the positions most sought after by employers in Puerto Rico are in the sectors of information technology and data analysis, operations and logistics, sales and marketing, human resources, and customer support.
In light of the ongoing talent shortage, training and updating are crucial tools to maintain and adapt the workforce for the future of work. Embracing inclusion, diversity, soft skills, artificial intelligence, managing different generations in the workspace, and continuous learning are imperative in the current work landscape, as stated by Rivera Roena.
The Q1 survey was carried out from October 1 to October 31, 2023, with the participation of a total of 500 employers in Puerto Rico. These results indicate a positive outlook for hiring trends in the job market for the beginning of 2024.