Job seekers, at least those with solid skills and a good work history, will be in demand locally in the coming quarter.
Fully 43 percent of the Twin Cities’ employers expect to be hiring from July through September, according to the most recent Manpower Inc. survey.
“L-A tends to have a strong third quarter” in terms of hiring, said Carol Albert, who manages Manpower’s Auburn office.
The coming quarter’s hiring trends mirror those of a year ago, Albert said. And a survey follow-up last year showed the numbers to be “99 percent accurate,” Albert said Monday.
This year, Manpower’s survey found that besides the 43 percent hiring rate, 7 percent of employers expect to reduce their payrolls. Another 47 percent say they’ll maintain existing staff levels, while 3 percent weren’t certain of their hiring plans.
The numbers are up from the present quarter.
“Employers in the Lewiston area have more favorable hiring intentions than in the second quarter when 30 percent of the companies interviewed intended to add staff, and 7 percent planned to reduce head count,” said Albert.
Ripple effect
Stepped-up hiring is creating a ripple effect in terms of wages, Albert said. Wal-Mart is recruiting to fill its Lewiston distribution facility needs, she noted. That comes on the heels of recent hirings by Lowe’s in Auburn and some job expansion at Tambrands. Nearly all of those jobs are paying $10 or more per hour, and most also come with benefits.
That’s putting a crimp on the work pool available for entry level and other minimum wage jobs, such as those associated with the fast-food industry, Albert said.
And that’s despite an April 5.1 percent local unemployment rate. At the time, the state said that about 2,900 people in the Lewiston-Auburn area were collecting jobless benefits then.
“It’s surprising that more of these jobs aren’t being filled,” said Albert. They aren’t in part because employers are picky about who they’ll put on their payroll.
Many, she said, “are looking for some longevity, a good work history.”
People who “job hop, or who left jobs without notice” will find it much harder to land goodl-paying jobs despite having good skill sets, Albert said.
For the coming quarter, she said local job prospects appear best in construction, non-durable goods manufacturing, wholesale/retail trade and services.
Employers in education plan to reduce staffing levels, while hiring in transportation/public utilities, public administration, durable goods manufacturing and finance/insurance/real estate is expected to remain unchanged.
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The national results of the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey reveal that U.S. employers expect the stable hiring pattern they have reported since the beginning of the year to continue into the third quarter of 2005.
Of the 16,000 U.S. employers surveyed, 31 percent expect an increase in hiring for the third quarter, while 6 percent anticipate a decrease in employment opportunities. Fifty-seven percent of companies polled expect no change in work force levels, and 6 percent are unsure of their staffing plans.
Quarterly survey
The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey is conducted quarterly. The survey has been running for more than 40 years. Nationally, the survey is based on interviews with nearly 16,000 public and private employers in 470 markets across the country and is considered a respected economic indicator.
Manpower Inc. is part of the employment services industry.
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