Smaller Firms Lead CRE Hiring in Q1

SelectLeaders headquarters at 575 Lexington Ave. in Manhattan.

NEW YORK CITY—It’s said that small business is the engine that drives economic growth, and at the moment this appears to be the case with commercial real estate hiring, as well. SelectLeaders’ latest Job Barometer reports that first-quarter postings of single job opportunities from real estate companies, pointing to smaller and more entrepreneurial firms, constituted the majority of listings for the first time ever.

The trend seen by SelectLeaders, which powers the GlobeSt.com Career Center, has emerged lately. Over the past five years, job opportunities in commercial real estate have been driven by “the larger companies based in gateway and first tier cities doing bulk hiring,” says David Funk, managing editor for the SelectLeaders Job Barometer. “But over recent months we’ve seen a significant uptick in small companies based in second- and third-tier markets looking to hire single, multi-talented individuals.”