Only 38 percent of employers continuously recruit throughout the year for positions that may open up down the line despite concerns over skills gaps and challenges posed by extended vacancies, according to a survey by CareerBuilder.

Among human resource managers who don’t continuously recruit, 46 percent cited time as the primary inhibitor. Cost was only a prohibitive factor to 29 percent of this group.

Sixty-five percent of a subset of human resources managers who continuously recruit say the tactic shortened their time to hire, and 54 percent said it lowered their cost per hire.

“Pipeline management and proactive recruiting will only save time in the back end,” said Kelly Kudola, Americas recruiting manager for Kelly Services. “There are so many more resources used in the reactive interviewing and screening process that our recruiters don’t have the time not to continuously recruit.”

The survey was conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder among 2,201 hiring managers and human resource professionals. The survey was conducted between Nov. 6 and Dec. 2, 2013.