MILWAUKEE – More American companies expect to add jobs in the fourth quarter than a year ago, even as they remain cautious about hiring, a new survey said.
Manufacturing, retail and service businesses in particular expressed strong optimism about hiring from October through December, according to the quarterly survey of 16,000 U.S. employers prepared for release Tuesday by Manpower Inc.
Overall, 28 percent of all businesses surveyed said they plan to add staff in the fourth quarter, compared with 7 percent that expect to reduce their payrolls, the survey said. Sixty percent of employers said they plan no changes in their staffing levels, and 5 percent said they were not sure.
“We are seeing that companies continue to have an appetite to hire people,” said Jeff Joerres, chairman and chief executive officer of Manpower, a global staffing company based in the Milwaukee suburb of Glendale.
The fourth-quarter outlook is a considerable improvement from a year ago, when the net percentage of companies anticipating increased hiring was half of that in the current survey.
Still, the latest survey found results similar to the previous two quarters this year, when seasonally adjusted.
“There will be hiring. And it will be measured, and it will be steady,” Joerres said. “It will be good, just not accelerating.”
About 29 percent of the businesses surveyed in the durable-goods manufacturing sector said they expect to add jobs in the last three months of the year, and 27 percent making nondurable goods said the same.
Durable goods are products that are expected to last for a number of years, such as furniture and appliances. Nondurable goods are used in a short period of time, such as cosmetics.
“We’ve not seen manufacturing have that kind of optimism in several years now,” Joerres said.
Economists say that is important, as the manufacturing sector drives the economy and has jobs that pay well.
Ernie Goss, an economics professor at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., said he expects the large federal deficit to lead to a weaker dollar, which will reduce imports and boost products made in the United States.
“The dollar should weaken some more,” he said. “That should help jobs in manufacturing.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
