Worker Shortage Is Seen Continuing, Leading Recruiters to Step Up Efforts
By JAMES P. MILLER Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
The persistent shortage of workers that has been crimping growth plans at many companies won't be ending anytime soon, according to Manpower Inc.'s latest survey of U.S. employers' hiring plans.
Demand for employees is still growing, and with unemployment at its current extremely low levels, "the traditional labor supply is essentially exhausted," Manpower said.
Companies pinched for labor may get a modicum of relief from recent legislative changes that eliminated Social Security earning limits; that freed some older workers from restrictions on their ability to work. But recruiting more workers "will continue to challenge employers throughout the country," Manpower said.
Of the about 16,000 companies that participated in the survey, about 35% said they expect to be recruiting additional workers in the third quarter.
That's the highest level seen in the 24 years that the survey has been conducted. During the year-earlier quarter, and again in the second quarter of the current year, the figure was an already very strong 32%.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the survey found 25% of companies expecting to boost hiring -- also a record -- compared with 23% in this year's second quarter and 21% in the year-earlier period.
In the latest survey, only 5% of employers said they expected to cut staffing for the coming quarter, less than the 6% expecting cutbacks in the year-earlier survey and this year's second quarter. For the coming quarter, 55% expected no change, down from 58% a year ago. "This is a job seeker's market," said Jeffrey Joerres, president and chief executive officer of the Milwaukee-based staffing company.
In the durable-goods manufacturing, Manpower's survey found 38% expecting to add to their staff in the coming quarter, compared with 33% a year ago. Hiring is strengthening in the long-depressed mining industry, the survey found.
In the retail sector, which has been scrambling to find enough help for two years, 38% of employers expect to be bolstering their work force in the coming quarter, compared with 36% a year ago. Seasonal dynamics are being altered by the shortage, Manpower noted, and recruiting for holiday-season help has begun earlier in recent years.
With workers so scarce, employers "are taking a longer-term view," explained Mr. Joerres, by hiring available help beginning in the third quarter and keeping them on the payroll for the fourth-quarter holiday-season crush.