Milwaukee-area employers expect to hire at a healthy pace during the second quarter, according to the new Manpower Employment Outlook Survey.
From April to June, 22 percent of the companies interviewed plan to hire more employees, while 6 percent expect to reduce staff. Another 67 percent expect to maintain their current workforce levels, and 5 percent are not certain of their
hiring plans. This yields a Net Employment Outlook of 16 percent for the market, which includes Milwaukee, Waukesha and West Allis.
“The employment forecast for the second quarter is much brighter compared to the first quarter of 2012 when the Net Employment Outlook was 5 percent,” said Manpower spokeswoman Nicole Langley. “Employers expect stronger employment prospects compared with one year ago when the Net Employment Outlook was 12 percent.”
For the coming quarter, job prospects appear best in Construction, Durable Goods Manufacturing, Non-Durable Goods Manufacturing, Transportation & Utilities, Information, Financial Activities, Leisure &Hospitality and Government sectors.
Employers in Wholesale & Retail Trade, Professional & Business Services and
Other Services plan to reduce staffing levels, while hiring in Education & Health Services is expected to remain unchanged.
Of the more than 18,000 employers surveyed in the United States, 18 percent expect to add to their workforces, and 6 percent expect a decline in their payrolls during Quarter 2 2012. Seventy-two percent of employers anticipate making no change to staff levels, and the remaining four percent of employers are
undecided about their hiring plans. When seasonal variations are removed from the data, the national Net Employment Outlook is +10 percent, similar to the Quarter 1 2012 Net Employment Outlook of +9 percent.
According to seasonally adjusted data, nine in 10 U.S. employers surveyed have conveyed that they plan to increase or make no changes to their hiring in the second quarter. The rise in confidence marks 10 straight quarters of positive overall survey results, which were preceded by three quarters of pessimistic employment plans.
“Our survey data for Quarter 2 2012 is particularly encouraging because the positive hiring intentions are widespread across states, regions and markets,” said Jonas Prising, ManpowerGroup president of the Americas. “Positive hiring intentions tell us that employers are seeing increased demand for their products and services, and that is good news for the labor market. Although we are not out of the woods yet, our data shows that this hiring progression is increasingly solid.
“It is well documented that this recovery is atypically slow. However, if we were able to see a time- lapse video of the recovery, we would see there is a noticeable positive trend,” said Prising. “Compared to three years ago at this time, the seasonally adjusted Net Employment Outlook increased from -2 percent to +10 percent, which is considerable. The data tells us that the healing process is further along than most realize.”
The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey is conducted quarterly to measure employers’ intentions to increase or decrease the number of employees in their workforces during the next quarter.
A Milwaukee Biz Blog last week predicted that the economic recovery is picking up steam.
