Hiring plans stay the course

[ckramer]

In keeping with a lackluster economy, employers' hiring plans are staying flat with the third-quarter outlook almost unchanged from the previous five quarters, according to the latest Manpower Employment Outlook Survey.

Twenty-one percent of U.S. employers plan to hire in the upcoming quarter, the same percentage as expected to hire in the previous two quarters this year and up just a tad from the 20% who planned to hire in the same period a year ago.

Manpower's seasonally adjusted net employment numbers measure the percentage of firms planning to hire minus those intending layoffs. It does not measure the number of jobs. Manpower surveys about 16,000 U.S. companies on their hiring plans each quarter.

"There continues to be consistency and caution in the employers' hiring decisions," said Barbara Beck, Manpower's executive vice president for the North America region.

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