Bucking the national trend, employers in the Milwaukee area are expecting to hire at a steady pace in the third quarter of 2003, according to Manpower Inc.'s most recent Employment Outlook Survey.
But employment prospects nationwide fell to the weakest levels in 12 years, said Jeffrey Joerres, Glendale-based Manpower's chairman and chief executive officer. The national hiring forecast decreased since the second quarter and dropped lower than it was a year ago.
"U.S. employers are still void of the business confidence needed to increase their employment projections for the third quarter," Joerres said.
According to the survey, just 20 percent of employers nationwide expect to add workers in the third quarter, compared with 9 percent who expect to cut jobs. Sixty-five percent expect to remain the same.
In the Milwaukee, Ozaukee, and Washington county areas, 33 percent of employers expect to add jobs. The figure is down from 40 percent in the second quarter but represents a rebound from 21 percent in the third quarter of last year.
Improvement in the Milwaukee area from last year was also evident in the decline of the percentage of employers expecting cutbacks in the third quarter of 2003 (14 percent) compared with the same period a year ago (19 percent).
Manpower spokeswoman Anne Edmunds said in a statement that third-quarter employment growth is expected in the services and public administration sectors, while cutbacks are foreseen in the finance, real estate and insurance sectors. Other industries surveyed -- including construction, manufacturing, transportation, retail and education -- reported mixed hiring intentions.
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