A new survey released by staffing provider Brilliant of companies in Chicago and South Florida found firms in those areas plan to increase hiring of accounting and finance professionals in the fourth quarter when compared to the third quarter, but plans ease up on hiring of IT professionals.

Twenty percent of companies reported plans to increase their pace of hiring for accounting and finance professionals, up from 14% last quarter. Twelve percent of companies reported plans to increase their pace of IT hiring, down from 14% last quarter.    

The data also indicate companies have a high percentage of unmet needs within their accounting, finance and IT functions, especially within accounting and finance. Moreover, the positions have been vacant for short periods of time with most companies planning to fill the roles as quickly as possible.

“The most interesting finding is that unfilled accounting and finance positions continued to increase, while open IT positions declined somewhat,” said Richard Curtin, professor and director of surveys at the University of Michigan, who conducted the survey with Brilliant. “Open accounting and finance jobs were reported by 42%, up from 36% last quarter and 30% Q4 2014. In contrast, unfilled IT positions were reported by 33% of companies, marginally below last quarter’s 37% and substantially below the 58% in Q2 2015.”

Brilliant CEO Jim Wong, CPA (inactive) adds, “Despite the recent global economic challenges, businesses are reporting unmet accounting, finance and IT needs. We remain optimistic that hiring plans will remain strong for accounting, finance and IT professionals in the near term.”

The survey included hundreds of human resources professionals and hiring managers. It was between July 21 and August 5, 2015.