At the halfway point in 2015, many British employers and job seekers are feeling positive about their prospects.

according to CareerBuilder.uk’s Midyear Job Forecast. Forty-five percent of employers plan to hire full-time, permanent staff over the next six months and 43 percent plan to hire temporary or contract workers. Meanwhile, just under three in ten (twenty-seven percent) workers plan to change jobs in the next 12 months. “Despite slower-than-average job growth in the first half of 2015, many British employers continue to increase hires,” said Scott Helmes, managing director of CareerBuilder UK. “Employers are practicing cautious optimism. While they may not be hiring at the pace they have in previous years, they are continuing to add headcount in several areas in order to remain competitive in a slower market.” The national surveys were conducted online by Redshift Research on behalf of CareerBuilder.uk and included representative samples of 100 hiring managers and 1006 full or part time workers within the UK, across multiple different industries and company sizes.

Starting Salaries

Half of employers (50 percent) expect to increase salary levels for current employees in the second half of the year. Twenty-six percent will increase salary levels by five percent or more. Just over 4 in 10 (41 percent) plan to increase starting salaries on job offers over the next six months. Around a quarter of employers (26 percent) will raise starting salaries by five percent or more.

Hot Areas for Hiring

The top functional areas where employers will be increasing hires in the second half of 2015 include:Customer Service – 28 percent; Information Technology – 22 percent; Sales – 20 percent; Production – 20 percent; Human Resources – 17 percent; Accounting/Finance – 15 percent; Marketing – eight percent. The survey also revealed some of the in-demand areas employers will be recruiting for in the second half of 2015 across the globe. These include those searching for a career in social media, wellness, mobile technology, search or cloud technology, cyber security, content strategy for the web, the environment, managing and interpreting big data, and financial regulation.