Survey: Local hiring outlook brightens in 3Q

PROVIDENCE – Local employers expect hiring to be flat in the third quarter, according to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey released today. The outlook brightened compared with that for the second quarter but dimmed compared with that a year ago.
From July to September, 17 percent of companies surveyed expect to hire more employees and 17 percent expect to trim their payrolls, according to Scott Shelley, a spokesman for Milwaukee-based Manpower Inc. (NYSE: MAN). The difference yields the area’s Net Employment Outlook of 0 percent. Among the remaining respondents, 53 percent expect to maintain their current staffing levels and 13 percent aren’t yet certain of their third-quarter plans.
“Providence area employers have stronger hiring intentions than in the second quarter, when 13 percent of the companies interviewed intended to hire additional employees and 23 percent planned to reduce staff levels,” Shelley said, yielding a Net Employment Outlook of negative 10 percent. But, he added, “Employers are less confident about hiring than they were a year ago, when 20 percent of companies surveyed planned to add staff and 7 percent anticipated a reduction in payrolls.”
The third-quarter outlook seems brightest in the transportation and public utilities sector, the survey found. Mixed intentions were found in three sectors – durable goods manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, and services – while job cuts were planned in non-durable goods manufacturing. In the remaining five sectors, no change was anticipated.
Across the Northeast region, “27 percent of employers intend to increase hiring while 8 percent intend to pare staff, thus the Net Employment Outlook is a respectable 19 percent,” the Manpower report said. But employers in six of 10 sectors were less optimistic than they had been about the second quarter.
Nationwide, expectations are for hiring to continue at the same rate as in the current quarter. “This stability comes after three consecutive quarters of slight declines in employer confidence,” Manpower noted.
The U.S. Net Employment Outlook was 22 percent, with 58 percent of employers foreseeing no change in hiring in the third quarter, 29 percent anticipating an increase in staffing, 7 percent a staff decrease and 6 percent remaining undecided, the survey found.
The quarterly survey polled 14,000 employers in the United States and nearly 52,000 worldwide.
Manpower Inc. (NYSE: MAN) is a global $18 billion work force recruitment, training, assessment, outplacement and consulting company. Results of its global third-quarter Manpower Employment Outlook Survey are available at www.manpower.com.