Human resources professionals and hiring managers in the greater Chicago and south Florida markets plan to increase their hiring in the year ahead, according to the first-quarter accounting, finance and IT hiring forecast study conducted by staffing provider Brilliant and Richard Curtin, director of surveys of consumers at the University of Michigan.

The study found three-in-10 businesses report unfilled full-time accounting and finance positions, and one-in-six companies report unfilled full-time information technology positions. Further, one-in-five companies plan to increase their hiring of accounting, finance and information technology professionals in the year ahead.

“The overall strength in hiring plans indicates that human resources professionals and hiring managers expect continued business growth and gains in nationwide employment during the year ahead,” Curtin said. “One-in-five firms expect to increase their hiring of accounting, finance and information technology teams at the same robust pace as the past year.”

For the next 12 months, 23% of companies surveyed plan to increase IT hiring — up from 12% in the fourth-quarter survey — and 21% plan to increase their accounting/finance hiring, up slightly from 20% last quarter.

The survey also found plans to hire additional temporary professionals slowed; 14% of IT firms expect to hire additional temporary professionals, down slightly from 15% in the fourth-quarter survey but a big drop from 24% in the survey for first-quarter 2016.

For accounting/finance firms, 8% plan to hire additional temporary professionals in the first quarter, down from 10% in the fourth quarter and half the 17% reported in first-quarter survey for 2016. This is the smallest portion of survey respondents to report this low of hiring plans for accounting/finance temporary professionals since the question was first asked two years ago.

For businesses planning to hire temporary professionals, the reasons survey respondents gave for planning to do so tilted toward business needs and away from economic uncertainty and regulatory costs. For accounting/finance professionals, half wanted to evaluate temporary professionals for full-time, permanent roles.

“Our study brings important insight into the future of accounting, finance and IT, and the overall health of the labor market,” said Jim Wong, CEO of Brilliant. “We remain optimistic that the strength in hiring plans indicates continued growth given the recent unpredictable performance of the economy.”

The survey included more than 500 human resources professionals and other hiring managers within the greater Chicago and south Florida market and was conducted between Oct. 17 and Oct. 31.