NEW YORK CITY—Hiring in commercial real estate is back to boom-period volume, with Cornell University's David Funk saying that job opportunities in the sector are “the best since we started tracking in 2006.” The Cornell/SelectLeaders Job Barometer found that 2014's tally of real estate opportunities increased by 23.2% over the 2013 total, marking the first year to surpass 2007's total.
Director of the Cornell University Baker Program in Real Estate, Funk adds that although “certain geographies and industry sectors are stronger than others,” overall he sees “a vibrant hiring environment.” Early indications are that the previous year's momentum is carrying forward into 2015, as January's numbers mark it as the best start to a new year since the Job Barometer was established.
Although office posted the largest number of applications—13.1% of last year's total number of applicants, who competed for 7.8% of job openings—the biggest growth area was multifamily positions. The apartment sector accounted for 7.2% of all jobs analyzed in January '14 and increased to 12.7% of the tally by the following December.
There were no jobs in the healthcare sector to be included in the study last January, but by December the sector comprised 3.0% of the Job Barometer. Conversely, the office sector declined from 16.3% in January '14 to 7.8% in December, while the industrial sector fell from 4.8% to just 0.6% of job postings over the same period.
“Some of this may be cyclical,” says Susan Phillips, CEO of SelectLeaders. “Multifamily and office highs and lows in hiring were opposite but similar comparing the beginning of the year to the end. Also, industrial was quite strong earlier in 2014.” GlobeSt.com's Career Center is powered by the SelectLeaders Real Estate Job Network.
Given January's strong showing, there's a good possibility that the Job Barometer will report another high watermark a year from now. “The dramatic increase in jobs, in all sectors and at all levels in '14, is already bringing back qualified talent who could not wait for our industry to fully recover to take a job, and in the process leaving those jobs behind,” Phillips says. “Real estate is poised to be an employment engine in 2015.” Click here to read the full Job Barometer report.
© Touchpoint Markets, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to asset-and-logo-licensing@alm.com. For more inforrmation visit Asset & Logo Licensing.