January Hiring: A Positive Jump on the Year Ahead

iCIMS’ Monthly Hiring Indicator shows strong job openings and hiring activity at the start of 2020

HOLMDEL, N.J. [February 4, 2019] – U.S. employers started the new year with healthy growth in new hires and job openings in January, according to iCIMS’ Monthly Hiring Indicator (MHI). Before seasonal adjustments, new hires increased 20.9% and new job openings saw a 33.5% increase. After factoring in seasonal adjustments, new hires increased 2.6% and job openings increased 9.4%. 

The MHI is a leading economic indicator published by iCIMS, drawing upon its database of more than 75 million applications, 4 million hires and 3 million jobs each year. New hires translate directly into payroll growth, after netting out departures, layoffs and other separations.

“Although January is a long month and typically shows strong hiring activity, these numbers are a reassuring sign that the U.S. labor market still had plenty of momentum before the outbreak of the coronavirus,” said Josh Wright, chief economist at iCIMS. “The uptick in manufacturing was particularly welcome, reinforcing the message of the ISM manufacturing survey, while the strong hiring in the West was consistent with the strong fourth-quarter earnings reported by leading technology firms.”

January 2020 U.S. New Hires and Job Openings Highlights:

• All sectors that iCIMS tracks saw hiring and job openings increase.
• Manufacturing saw a substantial 17.1% increase in hires (albeit just 0.4% after seasonal adjustments). Job openings in the manufacturing sector were up 44.8% before seasonal adjustments and 16.2% after. Over two thirds of the growth in manufacturing job openings occurred in the South and the Midwest.
• The growth in manufacturing was largely driven by demand for production workers and their direct supervisors, as well as stock clerks and order fillers.
• Professional & business services saw new hires and job openings rise at a seasonally-adjusted 10.7% and 3.5%, respectively, a good sign of momentum in the service sector.
• The West showed significant strength in new hires (29.7% non-seasonally adjusted and 4% seasonally adjusted). The Midwest saw the biggest increase in new job openings (37.5% non-seasonally adjusted and 15.1% seasonally adjusted).

About the iCIMS Monthly Hiring Indicator (MHI) Methodology:

The iCIMS Monthly Hiring Indicator (MHI) measures job openings and new hires, based on iCIMS system data, which is generated by user activity within our platform. iCIMS processes more than 1 million hires per quarter and 75 million applications per year. While iCIMS supports employers across the globe, the MHI is based on U.S. hiring activity only. The figures present both indexes of hiring activity and their month-over-month percentage change, using a fixed panel of customers. To facilitate comparison with benchmark data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, iCIMS publishes its indexes both with and without seasonal adjustments. Data from the MHI has been referenced by Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, Fox Business and NBC. To learn more about iCIMS’ MHI, visit iCIMS Hiring Insights, where the latest data and details on the methodology are both available for download.