HOUSTON, January 7, 2014 – Today, Murray Resources, a leading recruiting and staffing firm based in Houston, Texas, released the results of the company’s third annual Houston Growth and Staffing Outlook Report.

Since 2012 Murray Resources has surveyed Houston executives, HR staff, and hiring managers with the objective of gaining visibility into the economic and staffing outlook entering the new year. 60 Houston company leaders and executives, HR staff, and hiring managers – representing 20 different industries – responded to this year’s survey.

“Last year’s survey indicated that Houston companies would be hiring at levels not seen since the before the recession and that turned out to be the case. Almost 80% of last year’s respondents reported that they expected to increase hiring. This year’s report has that number at 53% – significantly lower, but still a healthy rate that indicates another strong year of hiring,” said Marsha Murray, President of Murray Resources.

For the second straight year there appears to be particularly strong demand for sales talent, with companies also reporting high demand for operations and engineering talent going into the new year. The top five areas expecting a moderate to significant increase in hiring are: Sales (38% anticipated increase), Operations (32%), Engineering (23%), Finance / Accounting (18%), Administrative (17%).

Additional key insights from the study:

• Attracting qualified talent continues to be the most significant human resource challenge facing Houston companies. 57% of respondents anticipate their company’s ability to attract qualified employees to be their biggest staffing challenge in the coming 12 months.
• Retaining current staff is a growing concern. 27% of respondents expect retaining current staff to be their biggest staffing challenge in the coming 12 months, versus 11% in last year’s survey.
• Almost half of employers anticipate an increase in hiring full-time employees during 2014. 46% of respondents expect a moderate or significant increase in full-time employees in the coming year.

As with last year’s survey, HR executives, managers, and staff represented the majority of respondents (44%). The largest single group of respondents – HR Managers – comprised 22% of the survey base, while CEO/President/Principal/Partner and C-Level/VP/Director (HR) both represented 18% of respondents.

For information on Murray Resource’s recruiting and staffing services, please visit: murrayresources.com/employers.

About Murray Resources

Founded in 1988, Murray Resources is a leading Houston recruiting firm and staffing agency. In 2013 the firm was named to the Inc. 500/5000 list of fastest growing private companies in America. The company serves a base of over 800 client companies, including numerous Fortune™ 1000 companies and high-growth small and medium-sized organizations, in the areas of administrative, accounting, customer service, engineering, finance, human resources, IT, manufacturing, marketing, operations, and sales. The company has been named a “Best Places to Work” and the #1 Fastest Growing Woman Owned Business in the Personnel Category by the Houston Business Journal. For more information, contact Murray Resources at 713.935.0009 or visit murrayresources.com.