Employers have ‘modest hiring plans’; job openings climb

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Local Tech Wire

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – If you have a job, the new quarterly employment survey from has good news:

A record-high 73 percent of companies say they expect to maintain current staffing levels That’s “good news for the currently employed,” Manpower noted.

However, for those who are out of work, the chances of finding a new job are not as positive. The Milwaukee-based staffing firm described hiring plans across the country for the second quarter as being “modest.”

"U.S. hiring activity is still in neutral, but revving toward first gear," said Jonas Prising, Manpower’s president of the Americas, in a statement. "It’s moving in the right direction, but it will take some time, with no major speed bumps, before it can accelerate."

In another report that is positive for job seekers, semployment openings rose sharply earlier this year.

The number of openings in January rose about 7.6 percent, to 2.7 million, compared with December, the Labor Department said. And the job openings rate climbed to 2.1 percent, the highest in nearly a year. That rate measures available jobs as a percentage of total employment.

There are now about 5.5 unemployed people, on average, competing for each opening. That’s still far more than the 1.7 people who were competing for each opening when the recession began. But it’s down from just over 6 people per opening in December 2009.

The gradually brightening jobs picture corresponds to what many job search Web sites are reporting.

According to Manpower, 16 percent of 18,000 firms in the survey plan to add workers.

Another 8 percent expect to cut payroll.

In 12 of 13 employment sectors, the overall hiring outlook is positive. Only government is expected to decline – and that by 1 percent.

Employment forecast for more hiring by sector:

• Leisure and hospitality, 17 percent

• Professional and business services, 15 percent

• Mining, 11 percent

• Nondurable goods manufacturing, 9 percent

• Financial activities, 9 percent

• Durable goods manufacturing, 8 percent

• Information, 8 percent