Amid fears of a potential recession and rising inflation, U.S.employers don’t plan to stop hiring, a Jan. 5 report by workforce solutions company ManpowerGroup found.

“Many remember the challenges they faced to bring workers back post-pandemic and are keen to hold onto the talent they have,”  ManpowerGroup Chief Commercial Officer and North America President Becky Frankiewicz said in a news release.

The 2023 Q1 Employment Outlook Survey found that the Net Employment Outlook, which is determined by subtracting the percentage of employers planning staffing cuts from those who intend to hire, is at 29%, down 4% from the previous quarter and 12% from the first quarter of 2022. Globally, the Net Employment Outlook is at 23%, down 6% from the fourth quarter and 14% from the same time last year. 

"This labor market continues to defy expectations with employers planning to add to their workforces across all key sectors for Q1,” Frankiewicz said. 

Companies with more than 250 workers were three times more likely than ones with fewer than 10 employees to expect to hire during the quarter, the survey found. 

Across sectors, IT shows the most promise for hiring, with 52% of companies surveyed planning to add staff. Communication services (18%), goods and services (15%) and transport, logistics and automotive (5%) have the least optimistic hiring outlooks. 

In an area like logistics and transport that shows a hiring slowdown, employers are “being very intentional in where they pause hiring,” Frankiewicz said. 

The survey results were based on interviews with more than 38,000 companies, including more than 6,000 U.S. employers