Firms in the Chicago and South Florida markets report a widespread number of open finance/accounting and IT positions heading into the third quarter, according to a survey released by staffing provider Brilliant. Businesses also plan to increase their overall hiring plans in the next 12 months, especially for IT.

Brilliant’s survey found 37% of businesses in the two markets had open positions in accounting and finance roles, unchanged from a similar survey conducted in the previous quarter. Looking at IT, companies reporting open positions rose to 35%, up from 28% in last quarter’s survey and the highest level since Q4 2016 survey.

Additionally, 21% of companies said they plan to increase IT hiring in the next 12 months — up from 18% in the second quarter’s survey. And while only 17% plan to increase their finance/accounting hiring — down from 23% last quarter and 25% in the year-ago survey — the number of firms that planned cutbacks in their hiring of accounting/finance professionals fell to just 5%, the lowest number reported since the hiring forecast for the first quarter of 2017.

However, survey participants reported plans to hire temporary professionals remain flat.

Twelve percent of IT firms expect to use temporary professionals, according to the Q3 survey, edging up from 11% in the prior two quarters but below the 18% reported in the third-quarter 2017 survey. For accounting/finance firms, 12% plan to use temporary professionals in the third quarter, down slightly from 13% in both the previous quarter and in the year-ago hiring forecast.

The report also noted what it called “a significant shift” in how survey participants found the majority of their successful hires — the dominance of search and recruitment firms reported since 2014 has shifted to a dominance by online job boards. Search and recruitment firms were mentioned as the dominant source of successful hires by 27% for accounting/finance positions in the current survey, down from 32% last quarter, while the top ranking instead went to online job boards at 34%, up from last quarter’s 29%. The same held true for IT hires; search and recruitment firms garnered top ratings by just 19% in the latest survey, down from 23% in the prior quarter.

“While this shift may be temporary, and could quickly revert back to the dominance of search and recruitment firms, it nonetheless hints that other than utilizing search and recruitment firms for candidates who possess critical skill or leadership qualities, businesses are turning online,” it stated. “It should not be surprising that given the tightened labor market in the past few years, the number and quality of online job boards would increase.”

The survey included close to 300 human resources professionals and hiring managers within the greater Chicago and South Florida markets. It was conducted between April 26 and May 14, 2018.