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As the economy continues to brighten, a growing number of employers are once again hiring. What’s more, the gains aren’t limited to certain sectors. Rather, a broad swath of companies within the Fortune 500--from health care providers to retailers to defense contractors to insurers--are looking to fill 60,000 openings.
The businesses include some of the best known in the US, such as Sears Holdings (SHLD) which is looking to fill nearly 22,000 positions; HCA and Northrop Grumman (NOC), 4,000 each; United Health Group (UNH), 3,200; and New York Life, more than 3,500, according to Fortune.
The uptick is being driven in part by better-than-expected profits that are helping to fill corporate coffers. Among big banks, many of which laid off thousands of workers after the 2008 financial crisis, JP Morgan Chase (JPM), the nation’s second-largest bank, has announced plans to hire nearly 9,000 new employees.
Other big banks are likely hiring, too, says John Challenger, CEO at Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago-based employment services firm. Looking strictly at operating income, he says, "Many of those banks are doing very well."
Another sector showing signs of much improved hiring is technology. Challenger points to Intel (INTC), the world’s largest chip maker, which plans to add up to 2,000 positions in manufacturing, and research and development. And the sector is expected to see more growth. Amid the recession, many finns halted spending.
But with the lifespan of many tech components limited to two or three years, a growing number of firms will find it necessary to loosen the purse strings and upgrade."That’s a real job creator," Challenger says, not only for manufacturers and developers, but for service personnel who come to work at corporate offices to install such components.
If the job picture appears more robust than just a few weeks, that’s because it’s human to be overly pessimistic during and immediately after a recession, Challenger says. "Especially in this recession (衰退). It’s been a long and difficult and slow moving recession" that really struck at core sectors of the economy. That’s way different from dot-corn bubble that burst about a decade ago.
While there has been some job growth in manufacturing, Challenger says there haven’t been substantial gains. Still, that’s better than bleeding jobs. A cheaper dollar on world markets is helping by making US-made goods cheaper abroad, but still the sector faces big challenges, such as foreign competition and the lingering effects of the recession.