By The Star Staff
The ManpowerGroup Employment Expectations Survey revealed that net hiring intentions in Puerto Rico are at 33% for the first quarter of 2024, a 3% decrease compared to the previous quarter.
Employers in the southern (57%), western (50%) and central (40%) regions reported the strongest hiring expectations, according to a report issued Tuesday.
Still, Puerto Rico continues to rank number eight in the global ranking, said Melissa Rivera Roena, ManpowerGroup general manager for Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
She noted that Puerto Rico exceeds the global average (26%) of employers’ hiring expectations, a trend observed in each quarter of the past year. The results of this first quarter show an increase of seven points compared to the same period in 2023, which registered 26%.
“It is positive that employers in Puerto Rico continue to show very high intentions to hire employees because it implies that they want to continue growing their businesses,” Rivera Roena said. “We need to focus efforts to achieve these jobs in the face of an ever-increasing talent shortage. It is necessary to continue making transformations and adaptations to satisfy the needs of people looking for work.”
She said the survey results reflected that companies in the southern region showed the highest hiring expectation (57%), followed by the western region with 50%, the center with 41% and the east with 22%. The northern and metropolitan regions have the lowest trends with 14% and 7%, respectively.
Regarding the size of the companies, the ManpowerGroup general manager indicated that at a general level, the strongest hiring expectation is in medium-sized companies (50-249 employees), with an expectation of 69%, and micro-businesses (1-10 employees), with 36%, followed by large companies (1,000- 4,999 employees) with 35%.
The sectors with the highest hiring intention at a general level in Puerto Rico for the first quarter of 2024 are communication services (74%), which increased by 16 percentage points since the last quarter and 66 points since the first quarter of 2023. Other sectors with the highest labor demand this quarter are information technology (64%), and in third place, manufacturing (49%).
“For the first quarter of 2024, all the nine economic sectors measured by the survey predict positive hiring intentions and all regions of Puerto Rico anticipate an increase in staffing levels,” said Alberto Alesi, general director of ManpowerGroup for Mexico, Caribbean and Central America.
The president of ManpowerGroup for Latin America, Mónica Flores, 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 services.
“In Puerto Rico we continue with high hiring expectations that face the persistent shortage of talent,” Rivera Roena said. “Training and updating are fundamental tools to maintain and adapt talent that is ready for the future of our work.”
She insisted that inclusion, diversity, soft skills, artificial intelligence, managing different generations in the workplace, and continuous learning “are not trendy topics; they are imperative in today’s work landscape.”
“Embracing them is essential to transform the organizational culture and retain and attract the most suitable minds to our ranks,” Rivera Roena said.
She specified that labor trends in Puerto Rico show challenges to incorporating artificial intelligence when considering the jobs available in that area, training personnel to take advantage of the functions of technology and understanding what existing skills need to be updated. Likewise, at least 47% of employers believe that all technical skills must be changed and adapted to achieve more sustainable practices for green transformation.