Qualified Job Candidates More Likely to Ask for Higher Salary

There's good news for job candidates. A new study sponsored by Robert Half International (RHI) and CareerBuilder.com, reports that finding qualified job candidates has become more challenging for employers, resulting in job candidates being more likely to ask for a higher salary. 57 percent of the hiring managers polled said it was difficult to find qualified candidates one year ago and 91 percent said it was equally or more challenging to find qualified candidates today. More than half of hiring managers who are experiencing difficulty recruited cited a shortage of qualified professionals. Professional and technical staff members were found to be the most difficult to recruit with forty-three percent of employers indicating they are struggling to find candidates for these positions, an increase of 37 percent the previous year. 17 percent reported difficulty filling director, manager, supervisor and team leader positions an increase of two points from the previous year.

Job candidates have leveraged the situation to their advantage; 58 percent of workers polled for the study said that they are more likely to negotiate a better compensation package than they were one year ago. The survey results also show that these are the types of positions for which employers are most likely to increase compensation.

Of course, this is great news for experienced job candidates, and perhaps even good news for less experienced candidates who may find more opportunities open up as a result of this situation.