A survey by Manpower Inc. forecasts a flat pace for Texarkana area hirings during the first quarter of next year.
A vast majority of those companies surveyed said they plan on maintaining the same employment level from January through March of 2004.
With 86 percent saying employment will stay the same, 7 percent said they're looking to hire more workers and 7 percent said they're looking to reduce employment. The information for the survey was gathered in October.
Manpower's survey indicated the new year's first quarter job prospects in Texarkana seem strongest in durable goods manufacturing and services while transportation/public utilities and wholesale/retail trade could reduce their workforce.
Local Manpower office manager Kelly Brule said this year's outlook is more cautious than other quarters.
"Texarkana area employers reported more encouraging staffing plans for the fourth quarter (of 2003) when 10 percent of the companies interviewed predicted an increase in hiring activity, while 3 percent planned to decrease the hiring pace," said Brule in a written statement. "A year ago at this time, employers forecast a much brighter job outlook when 33 percent of companies surveyed thought employment increases were likely and 3 percent intended to cut back."
Other local staffing agencies remain hopeful the new year will bring them more jobs after a lackluster 2003.
Dwayne Butler, co-owner of Red Carpet Employment Agency Inc., said 2004 should be better for employment.
"Based on what our clients are telling us, I'd say they're going to be adding to the workforce," said Butler.
He thinks the economy is in the final "echoes and death throes" of the recession that's hit hiring the past few years.
Reflecting on the past year, Butler said their business wound up at the same level it was at the year before.
Butler said 2003 "was flat for us. It was almost a year that as long as you were treading water, you were doing OK."
Saying 2003 was "upside down" in terms of hiring trends, Butler noted that this past year was unusual. Industry sectors they thought would be "popping and growing" were down and ones they thought would be stagnant were "busy, busy, busy," he said.
This past year saw light industrial and retail up in hiring, said Butler, while construction was down.
Brenda Maxey, president of Temporary Services Unlimited Inc., said they're looking forward to the new year.
"We're very optimistic that things are going to pick up quite a bit at the first of this year," said Maxey. She agreed that 2003 was a slow year for the temporary employment and staffing industry.
"Overall the year has been a slower year than normal," she said. However, recent trends at Temporary Services Unlimited show a rise in "higher end" positions," she added.
"It has not been booming by any means, but we have seen an increase in positions," said Maxey.
She said they're hopeful stock market confidence will trickle down to hiring since "one has to go with the other." Typically, the employment agencies are the first to feel an up or down movement in the economy, she said.
Maxey said this past year saw a depressed manufacturing sector and that could continue until at least the second quarter of 2004, but she believes service industries will increase hiring in the first and second quarters of the new year.
At Manpower, staffing specialist Michelle Tucker said industrial labor and construction hiring has been their emphasis this past year, while "the clerical field has not been very active." She noted that most hirings for industrial labor and construction have been temporary rather than temporary-to-hire.
The local survey results are part of Manpower's national survey, which has been conducted for more than 40 years and is based on surveys of nearly 16,000 public and private sector employers.
Email This Page!