This is the area of ​​the island that will have the highest number of job opportunities in the first quarter of 2024

Employers in Puerto Rico plan to hire more employees this first quarter (33%), which is seven points more than the intentions they had for the same period in 2023, according to the latest ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey.

In fact, the results show this Puerto Rico ranks eighth out of 41 countries surveyed And Exceeds the global average of 26% for employers' hiring expectations.

However, this number represents a decline compared to the hiring intention in the previous quarter, a period in which some companies typically hire more people because it is the Christmas season.

“It is positive that employers in Puerto Rico continue to show very high intentions to hire employees because it means they want to continue growing their business. We need to focus efforts to achieve these jobs in the face of high levels of talent shortage. “It is essential to continue making shifts and adaptations to meet the needs of people looking for work,” said Melissa Rivera Ruena, MPG's general manager in Puerto Rico, when announcing the survey results on Tuesday.

Employers in the south of the island plan to hire more staff

Companies in the Southern region showed the highest employment expectations (57%), followed by the Western region at 50%, the Central region at 41%, and the Eastern region at 22%. Northern and urban areas have the lowest trends at 14% and 7% respectively.

Sectors and sizes of companies that will employ the largest number of employees

Regarding the size of companies, The strongest employment outlook is for medium-sized companies (50-249 employees), with 69% expected And small companies (1 to 10 employees) at 36%, followed by large companies (1,000 to 4,999 employees) at 35%.

“By the first quarter of 2024, “The nine economic sectors measured by the survey predict positive employment intentions and all regions of Puerto Rico expect an increase in employment levels.”Highlighted by Alberto Alessi, Managing Director of ManpowerGroup Mexico, Caribbean and Central America.

These are the sectors with the highest intention to hire

However, the sectors with the highest intention to hire in Puerto Rico for the first quarter of the year are communications services (74%).Which has risen by 16 percentage points since the last quarter and 66 points since the first quarter of 2023.

Other sectors with the highest labor demand in this quarter are IT companies (64%) and, in third place, manufacturing (49%).

For her part, the head of the ManpowerGroup for Latin America, Monica Flores, pointed out this The jobs most in demand by employers in Puerto Rico are in the IT, data analysis, operations, logistics, sales and marketing, human resources, and customer service sectors.

“In Puerto Rico, we maintain high employment expectations facing a persistent talent shortage. Training and upgrading are essential tools for retaining and adapting talent to be ready for the future of work,” said Rivera Ruena.

The General Manager stated that inclusion and diversity, soft skills, artificial intelligence, managing different generations in the workspace and continuous learning “are not trendy topics, they are essential in today’s work landscape. Embracing them is not only essential for transforming organizational culture, but also for retaining and attracting the best minds to our ranks.”

Rivera Ruena explained that labor trends in Puerto Rico show that there are challenges to integrating artificial intelligence when looking at the jobs available in this field, training employees to take advantage of the functions of that technology and understanding the current skills that need to be updated.

The first quarter survey was conducted from October 1 to October 31, 2023 with a total of 500 employers in Puerto Rico participating.