U.S. Job Growth Likely To Stay Slow

Survey Reveals 60 Percent Of Companies Predict No Change In Their Work Force This Spring

(AP)  Even as employers nationwide slashed some 63,000 jobs last month, more than a quarter of U.S. companies say they plan to hire within the next three months, according to a survey of 14,000 companies.

Across the country, some 26 percent of companies expect to increase the size of their work force between April and June, according to the survey to be released Tuesday by Manpower Inc. Nine percent plan a decrease, while 60 percent predict no change and 5 percent are unsure, the Milwaukee-based global staffing company found.

The numbers are slightly worse than those for the same quarter last year, when 28 percent of employers expected to hire and 7 percent planned to cut jobs. But they're better than the predictions for the current quarter, when hiring was expected to outpace job cuts by a margin of just 10 percentage points.

The survey's margin of sampling error is less than plus or minus 1 percentage point.

The results show that employers are being more thoughtful in their hiring practices, but they're not scaling back completely, said Jonas Prising, Manpower's president for North America.

"Nobody's pulling the handbrakes yet," he said. "Everybody's braking somewhat. Everyone's cautious. Most sectors are being cautious."

The quarterly survey conducted since 1962 predicts a modest slowdown in virtually every industry across the board, from manufacturing and mining to education and wholesale and retail trade.

The outlook was bleakest in the construction industry, where 28 percent of companies anticipate growth and 13 percent expect job cuts.

Those numbers are down from the year-ago quarter, when 36 percent expected to hire and 7 percent planned to downsize. They're up from the current quarter, in which just 17 percent of companies expected to hire between January and March, but the first quarter is typically a slower period for the construction industry.

Respondents in two industries said hiring rates will remain stable in the upcoming quarter compared with same quarter last year. Those are the service industry and the transportation and public-utilities industry.

The Manpower results continue a 17-quarter stretch of fairly strong hiring intentions, in which at least 20 percent of companies surveyed said they planned to add to their staffs.

There was mixed news for the wholesale and retail trade industry, where about a quarter of employers expect to hire in the upcoming quarter. That's 5 percent better than the previous quarter, but 3 percent worse than the same quarter last year.

Regionally, about two of every three employers in the Midwest and South expect staffing numbers to remain unchanged next quarter.

Prising said jobs can still be had but jobseekers will need to hone in on regions and industries that are still seeing growth.

"You may have to move. You may have to look a bit harder," he said. "You may have to decide which sectors you want to focus on, but there are still employment opportunities out there."

Those areas include manufacturing in the West, Midwest and Northeast; education in the West; and transportation and utilities in the West and Northeast.

The elimination of 63,000 jobs in February was the most in one month since March 2003, according to Labor Department statistics.

[timdgrim]

You better learn to speak Spanish so you can communicate with the future majority of the U. S. workforce.

[noloyalisti]

Yes, this government makes it worse. However, government for the people as there are in many other civilized countries can work.

First of all you need to disallow conservatives for working in the government since they obviously do not like the government (unless it is for their personal profit). Since they don''t believe in government, it is their desire to ruin it.

[slim1h2o]

WalMart, Target, Kmart, and other retailers will be hiring a lot less this year than in previous years.

Posted by USAyesterday at 03:45 PM : Mar 11, 2008

Yup,,and that half of our new work force will need to take their daily "Siesta"...

[jt_lancer]

Government generally makes the economy worse by intervening.

Government cannot magically ''stimulate'' the economy by creating non-existent wealth out of thin air.

Government cannot ''create'' jobs from nothing, either. If they could, why is there ANY unemployment?

So many Americans are convinced (indoctrinated) into thinking that government has the magic beans to help the economy grow and flourish.

Yet, throughout history, governments have been the great obstructionists to the creation of wealth and the improvement of living standards.

[jt_lancer]

Voters, in general, are ill-equipped to ''choose'' the person qualified to ''run the country'', considering that most Americans are economically illiterate, thanks to publick skoolz.

[jt_lancer]

RE: "Maybe it is the time for our goverment to help America."

How can ''your government'' help America? Government generally makes things worse, not better.

[lovegetpeace]

Hey NeoConservatives,
How much richer are you compared to Jan-2001? What was your ROI on getting Bush elected and re-elected?

[lovegetpeace]

Hello NeoConservatives,
Any new awesome ideas beside the same old Tax Cuts ideology to stimulate job growth inside this country and not outside (outsourcing)?

[davidlar2]

We need to go through a recession to burn off the excess and pop the bubbles. If only Bernanke would stop cutting interest rates, driving inflation, and killing the dollar, we might be able to land back on our feet at the end of this.

[noloyalisti]

The GOP has gotten everything they wanted. They have bankrupted the government and in the ensuing chaos will allow corporations to privatize even more than they have.

They have devastated the middle class and stopped upward mobility for everyone but the rich.

Ever since Reagan, they have had a policy of identifying a problem and then creating it. The War of Terror is a great example.

[jwind11]

The article about jobs, no concern to entitlemant relying loser liberals.

[jjp735i]

Likely? to slow!

Who wrote this story? Bush?

[lochlan-2009]

They have no idea how bad it is going to get.

[clestes-2009]

Want to try the word Recession??

[inventagod]

The greed and vice that rode into Washington with Bu$h have drained the resources of our once-great country.
Bu$hCo has financed his Oil Invasion using credit practices that have been historically proven detrimental to stability of any nation. The funding for his ''war'' is still not in any US budget.
Of course there is a monitary storm building...