Strong Q4 Job Growth In U.S. And Abroad, Survey Says

By Agence France-Presse Employers in the United States, Mexico and New Zealand expect to hire more workers in the fourth quarter, but Europeans expect weaker job growth, a recently released survey said. In the United States, employers expect jobs to keep pace with the last two quarters. A net 21% of employers canvassed for the survey said they planned to hire in the final three months of the year. "U.S. employers have predicted solid employment activity for the past six months and they expect to sustain that level of hiring through the end of the year," said Jeffrey Joerres, chairman of Manpower Inc., the Milwaukee-based recruitment agency that conducted the survey. "Hiring plans remain the most upbeat they have been since the hiring boom of the late 1990s that continued into the new millennium." Employers in Germany, Mexico and Hong Kong reported their most optimistic hiring intentions since Manpower began surveying in these countries. In Mexico, a net 18% of employers planned to expand their payrolls, with the greatest optimism expressed by companies in manufacturing and commerce. Employers in New Zealand were the most upbeat about fourth-quarter job prospects, putting them out front in the survey of 19 countries. But the picture in Europe was mixed, with employers in six of 11 countries saying they expected the year to close with less robust hiring activity, compared with the previous quarter. The greatest job opportunities were seen in Ireland and the United Kingdom, while employers in Italy and Germany were the most pessimistic. The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey was based on interviews with over 35,000 employers across 19 countries and territories. Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2004