The industrial sector will see the most hiring in the second quarter, followed by administrative and engineering, according to Express Employment Professionals’ hiring trends survey released today. However, respondents also reported plans to eliminate positions in industrial and accounting and finance.

“These are encouraging results in some way. Respondents seem to believe that they don’t expect production or sales to slow down in the second quarter,” said Express CEO Bob Funk. “Given the sluggish recovery and concerns about the future, that’s at least one promising sign.”

Planned second-quarter hiring by sector/segment includes:

• General labor (industrial): 46%
• Administrative and office clerical: 13%
• Other: 13%
• Engineering: 10%
• Accounting and finance: 7%
• Marketing: 7%
• Information technology: 3%
• Healthcare: 1%

Planned second-quarter job elimination by sector/segment includes:

• General labor (industrial): 33%
• Accounting and finance: 33%
• Other: 33%
• Administrative and office clerical: 13%
• Engineering: 0%
• Marketing: 0%
• Information technology: 0%
• Healthcare: 0%

Production was the top department for hiring at 36%, followed by sales and logistics at 30% and 9% respectively. No hiring was planned for accounting, human resources, legal or risk. Accounting was the only department in which respondents reported plans to eliminate positions.

The survey included 390 businesses, which are current and former clients of Express Employment Professionals, and was conducted in the first quarter of 2016. Respondents were asked to report the number of hires they planned to make in each sector and department as well as the number of positions they planned to eliminate.