- Donald Trump's win is reducing uncertainty, boosting some employers' confidence about posting jobs.
- Hiring experts anticipate a "Trump bump" for now despite concerns over tariffs and immigration.
- Some employers had been waiting to post jobs until the outcome of the election was clear.
If you've been looking for a job and haven't had any luck, that could be about to change.
Donald Trump's decisive win ends some uncertainty about the broad direction of the US — and extinguishes worries that there will be a drawn-out fight over the outcome.
Executives focused on hiring told Business Insider that the newfound clarity is already making some employers more willing to post jobs.
"Our phone was basically ringing off the hook with companies looking to hire," Lief Larson, CEO of Salesfolks, a staffing firm focused on sales roles, told BI. "Regardless of your political persuasion, there is no doubt that the market is anticipating a Trump bump."
Knowing who will occupy the White House is a help to employers, employment experts told BI, even as questions remain about the fallout from a potential increase in tariffs or a reduction in immigration.
"Having the uncertainty behind us will prompt many — and encourage many — to start looking at increasing hiring," Tim Glowa, founder and CEO of HRbrain, which develops artificial intelligence tools for human resources, told BI.
Demand in tech
It also helps that in the fourth quarter, some employers push to bring on people before the end of the year. Others prepare job descriptions to go up in January, said Michelle Volberg, a longtime recruiter who's founder and CEO of Twill, a venture-backed startup that pays tech workers to recommend peers for key jobs.
"We're seeing a pretty healthy number of roles planning to be posted in January, probably more than we even expected," Volberg told BI. Volberg said she's seen an "upward trend" in the past 12 months that's now continuing.
"I don't see anything currently on the horizon that will challenge the US economy in any way," Volberg said.
She said some of the demand is in tech, particularly from companies focused on AI looking to hire in engineering, product, sales, and marketing.
That's welcome news because while the overall US unemployment rate remains low, some tech firms have been cutting in some roles and slow to hire in other areas — much to the frustration of job seekers.
Kathleen Lin Hurtubise, CEO and founder of Aloha Hospitality Professionals, a staffing firm focused on hospitality and light industrial workers, told BI that uncertainty over tax and immigration policies had led some of the company's customers to wait out the politics.
"We had a handful of clients who put us on pause until the elections," she said. Many employers, Hurtubise said, wanted to know how business decisions they had already made would likely play out once it became clear who would take the White House.
More employers could turn to automation
Jason Leverant, COO and president at AtWork Group, a staffing firm focused on areas including advanced manufacturing, logistics, and warehousing, told BI that a focus on bringing manufacturing jobs back to the US — so-called reshoring efforts that are already underway — could further help boost momentum in hiring for workers without college degrees.
Yet, Leverant said, reshoring could be more expensive for employers and, when combined with talent shortages, could push more companies to automate where possible.
Reduced immigration could also harm industries like construction and agriculture, where immigrants often fill many roles, he said.
"Do we start seeing a skills gap or a talent gap there?" Leverant said. He said such a chasm could eventually push wages higher in those areas if employers grow desperate for workers.
Leverant said a focus by some in Trump's inner circle, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, on areas like workplace automation could mean as some aspects of jobs go away, workers who get the right training could take on "more complex roles that even advanced robotics can't touch right now."
A postelection rush to hire
Aaron Cleavinger, a managing partner at Murdoch Mason Executive Search Group, told BI that he's been "inundated" with new search requests from clients since the election.
He said that likely reflects a mix of the typical end-of-year ramp-up and also several months' worth of demand by employers, particularly in areas like manufacturing, that held off posting jobs because of political uncertainty.
"Anything that they've been delaying for the last couple of months, they're finally releasing," Cleavinger said, referring to employers and job postings.
Cleavinger said that in many cases, employers might have been agnostic about which candidate won and instead just wanted to know which way it would break.
"They say, 'Hey, just tell me what I can count on, and then I can build a plan around that,'" he said.
Cleavinger said demand for hiring will vary by industry, as it often does. Yet he said for small and medium-sized companies, optimism that there could be tax cuts could help boost budgets for hiring.
Obstacles could emerge
Even as some employers look to increase hiring, getting — and keeping — a job might get harder for some workers. Peter Rahbar, an employment attorney and founder of the boutique law firm The Rahbar Group, told BI that he expects to see an erosion of protections afforded to federal workers, including those seeking jobs.
If enforcement of antidiscrimination laws becomes deprioritized, Rahbar said, that could make it harder for some people, including women and minorities, to land and retain jobs.
Rahbar said reductions to immigration could hurt industries beyond agriculture and construction, including tech. That's because some tech companies needing workers rely on skilled immigrants to fill some roles.
For now, though, Cleavinger, from Murdoch Mason Executive Search Group, expects demand for workers will generally heat up.
"I expect a pretty significant uptick in hiring. We usually see that anyway at the end of the year, but I think it'll be a little more pronounced now," Cleavinger said.