This year has shown significant growth with a stronger housing market and the national unemployment rate remains around 7 percent. Despite these positive figures, a survey from Gallup showed that public and private sector organizations felt less confident hiring employees during the government shutdown.
Just weeks prior to the shutdown, the Gallup U.S. Job Creation Index calculated the difference between the number of people who reported that their employer was hiring and the number whose organization was letting workers go.
The figures for both public and private employers were positive and in double digits, +11 for government workers and +22 for the latter. The source added that about 35 percent of respondents said that their employers had plans to hire in October, in comparison to the 17 percent that planned to reduce the size of their staff.
However, disputes over the federal budget temporarily put expansion plans on hold at many organizations.
“The shutdown clearly affected Americans’ confidence in the economy, and made them less optimistic about their own standard of living,” Gallup researchers wrote.
During the 16-day partial shutdown, the hiring index was reduced by more than half for government workers, but this could have been due to the fact that thousands of workers were furloughed. Many departments were working with the bare minimum amount of staff members, which could have delayed the use of HR software solutions to find new employees.
The last time the source reported seeing a weaker weekly average was in March, after the sequester took effect.
Now that the shutdown is over, companies that had plans to fill vacant positions can use HR software solutions to end the fourth quarter on a strong note.