US companies are boosting recruitment budgets and spending more on professional networking sites, according to a study by Bersin & Associates and Deloitte.

The study found US companies had increased talent acquisition spending by 7% on average in 2014, in response to the ‘war for talent’. 

Healthcare and technology firms were leading the charge with double digit increases.

Job boards remained in first place for attracting that spend, accounting for 19% of budgets, but professional networking sites, which the report does not name, realised the greatest increase in spending, claiming 12% of the budget. This is up threefold on 2011.

The benchmarking study, ‘Talent Acquisition Factbook 2015’, also found US companies spend on average $4k (£2.6k) to fill an open position.

The manufacturing industry spent the highest per hire, $5,611, attributed to the changing nature of the industry and the desire for highly skilled and costly candidates 

In contrast, standardised skill sets saw cost ($3,033) per hire remain relatively low in the healthcare industry.

The time to hire was, on average, 52 days. 

The information was based on more than 1,700 “research-based sources”.