Take 5: skilled talent, tech demand and inflation

NH Business Review's biweekly snapshot of business and industry statistics

DATA gathered in Robert Half’s Demand for Skilled Talent report found that more than half (56%) of HR leaders plan to increase permanent headcount in the first half of the year, while 52% look to expand their use of contract or temporary talent. Due to the current tight labor market, nearly 6 in 10 HR leaders (59%) say it’s more difficult to find skilled HR talent than it was a year ago.

HIRING in the technology sector continues to see increase in demand for jobs that are helping drive AI adoption. Based on statistics by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics published by Robert Half, those technology roles in the most demand include: AI/ML engineer, data analyst, DevOps engineer, IT project manager, network/cloud engineer, software engineer and systems administrator. A majority (93%) of tech and IT leaders surveyed by Robert Half say staffing firms have been effective at helping them address AI-related hiring challenges.

THE newest survey released by Resume.org outlines how economic uncertainty is impacting the job market. Key findings include that 1 in 10 companies have implemented a hiring freeze, and 41% have cut back on hiring. Additionally, 4 in 10 companies have laid off employees in 2025, with 6 in 10 companies likely to lay off employees in 2026 due to economic stress, trade policy and AI adoption.

AS of 2025, 15% of young adults say they follow the news all or most of the time, based on findings by the Pew Research Center, which is four times less (62%) than the oldest Americans who say they do this. Adults under 30 are more likely to get news on social media than older adults — there is a 48 percentage-point gap between the shares of Americans ages 18 to 29 and those 65 and older who get news on social media at least sometimes (76% vs. 28%).

A recent WalletHub banking survey found that 3 in 5 Americans say the money in their bank accounts is not keeping up with inflation, even though 1 in 4 people do not include savings in their budget. Fifty-six percent of respondents also said they’re not satisfied with the interest rate on their bank account, but 51% plan on opening a new bank account in the next year.