Manpower, a leading employment services firm, recently published it’s annual Q4 Employment Survey. Manpower interviewed over 60,000 employers from 26 countries and territories and representing 10 industry sectors in an attempt “to measure anticipated employment trends” for their locations and industries between the months of October 2006 and December 2006.
Employers were asked, “How do you anticipate total employment at your location to change in the three months to the end of December 2006 as compared to the current quarter?”
Twenty-eight percent of U.S. employers surveyed said they foresee an increase in hiring activity, 8% expect a decline in staff levels during Q4. Fifty-eight percent anticipate no change in the hiring and 6% were undecided about their year-end hiring plans. The takeaway: Net Employment outlook of 20% (derived from subtracting the percent of employers who anticipate an increase in hiring from the percent of employers who expect a decrease). Basically, employers expect hiring activity to be about the same as it has been for the last 10 quarters.
Employers in Mining and retail were most optimistic about hiring activity; employers in public admin and Finance/Insurance/Real Estate were least optimistic.
Employers in the West were most optimistic (31%) about year-end hiring activity, but only by 2 percentage points. Employers in the South were close at 30%, followed by employers in the Northeast (28%) and the Midwest (26%).
Employers in Construction and Public Admin were least optimistic about their hiring, with more employers in those sectors stating that they expected a decrease in hiring (13% and 11%, respectively). This is not that shocking given the fact that the housing market is sputtering, and there isn’t a lot of lot of government hiring going on outside of D.C./MD (Homeland Security).
The takeaway: If you’re looking for work in Mining in the West or South, you’ll probably find something. Not much difference in optimism across regions.
In all regions except the West employers in the Wholesale/Retail Trade are by far the most optimistic about their year-end hiring activity (Mining and transportation/public utilities were slightly ahead of Wholesale/Retail in the West). Again, not surprising given that many retailers generate as much as 80% of their revenue in the last quarter of the year due to the holiday season.
Globally, employers in all 26 countries expect to add workers to their workforces in Q4 2006. Employers in Peru, India, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa were most optimistic; employers in France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain were least optimistic. Yet again no surprises given that the most optimistic employers are located in countries benefiting from the U.S. outsourcing bonanza.
So to close…No surprises.
What does that mean to you jobseekers out there? Go West and go retail (not necessarily, retail in the West) if you want a sure thing. The West is experiencing a renaissance of the dot.com bubble, and retail is trying to capitalize on the “most wonderful time of the year” and are searching for lots of seasonal help. Truthfully, if you have the right skills and experience you’ll likely be able to find a job in Q4 2006, if you are actively, seriously looking and you use the resources on Careersthatdontsuck.com.
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