If you’re looking to make a hire soon, here’s what every hiring manager should know in 2019. These insights come from a recent poll conducted on behalf of CareerBuilder.

The labor market is still tight.

A skills gap still exists, so the competition for hiring quality talent continues to be intense. 40% of employers plan to hire full-time, permanent employees in 2019. 47% plan to hire contract or temporary employees. And 50% of HR managers say they can’t find qualified candidates for their open jobs. How are employers tackling this problem?

Hiring managers are recruiting year-round.

51% percent of hiring managers recruit throughout the calendar year for positions that may open up later on. 55% of these continuously recruiting managers say this shortens their time-to-hire, and 42% believe that it shrinks cost-per-hire.

Compensation is on the rise.

29% of employers expect the average increase in salaries for existing employees to be 5% or more in 2019 compared to 2018.

Employers are willing to invest in training.

In light of the competitive labor market, 63% of employers say they have hired someone without the required skills with plans to train them. 59% plan to hire and train workers who may not be 100% qualified but have potential. 55% of employers believe that, on average, 50% or more of all jobs include tech requirements. 56% have paid for employees to get skills-based, off-site training, to empower them to fill a higher-skill position within their organization.

One example of this is Amazon.com Inc., which plans to spend $700 million to retrain roughly 33% of its U.S. labor force, as technology threatens to upend the way many of its workers do their jobs. The company expects to retrain as many as 100,000 employees by 2025 by expanding existing training programs and implementing new ones aimed at helping them move into more advanced jobs within the company or find new careers outside of it. The training is voluntary, and most of the programs are free.

What every hiring manager should know is that many employees want tech training. 66% of the employees surveyed say their employer does not offer educational opportunities or workshops outside of work hours to help them learn new skills that would be useful in their current positions. 73% of those employees expressed that they would be somewhat or extremely likely to participate if such opportunities were offered.

Employers are seeking candidates with soft skills.

What makes a person worth hiring? 92% of employers say it’s soft skills such as interpersonal skills, communication abilities, and critical thinking. Recognizing that specific technical skills are necessary for some jobs,  80% also believe that soft skills are just as important as hard skills—or even more important than them–when hiring job seekers. The employers surveyed are looking for candidates with the ability to be team-oriented (51%), attention to detail (49%), and customer service (46%).

Compensation isn’t the only attraction to a job.

When they’re considering another company’s job offer, employees conveyed that salary isn’t always the clincher. More important may be location (56 percent), affordable benefits plans (55 percent), job stability (55 percent), a good boss (48 percent), and good work culture (44 percent). 32% of workers surveyed say they’re looking to change jobs in 2019 due to dissatisfaction with low compensation or lack of benefits (15%) and poor company culture (10%). This could be great news for your open position if you’re offering fair market rate compensation (call us for help if you’re not sure), meaningful company perks, and an uplifting company culture.

What every hiring manager should know in 2019

To sum up CareerBuilder’s findings, the labor market is still intensely competitive, but employers are finding ways to combat the skills gap to find and retain top talent:

• Recruit for all your positions year-round to keep your candidate pipeline filled.
• Be prepared to raise your compensation packages.
• Be willing to invest in tech training so employees can grow into and fill higher-skill positions.
• Look for soft skills, not just hard skills, in job seekers.
• Attract quality candidates with fair wages, good benefits, skillful management, and a good work culture.