Brush off those resumes—hiring in the commercial real estate industry is up. Even better, there's a sharp uptick in the level of permanent/full-time placements—up 32% over last year. According to the real estate headhunters of RETS Associates, the most active employee seekers are REITs, developers, and advisory firms. The firm sees a spike in searches for multifamily developers in particular.

In the first half of the year, job searches increased 34% in LA, compared to Silicon Valley's 10%, and 20% for the Bay Area outside of Silicon Valley. Hiring for interim positions have held steady with last year's level, though, with property management and accounting positions being the most consistently active. That said, demand for lease abstracting services is growing as deal volumes continue to increase. Another indication of more robust hiring: While Q1 is typically the slowest period for real estate recruiting, RETS has seen a 248% increase in Q1 job searches over in the past three years.