The most recent edition of ManpowerGroup’s quarterly “Employment Outlook Survey” indicates that the first quarter of 2018 will be very strong in terms of staffing, reporting “the strongest hiring intentions in 10 years” according to a survey press release.
The survey was conducted among over 11,500 U.S. employers and reports a +19% adjusted Net Employment Outlook for Q1 2018. It is the 14th consecutive quarterly report with an Outlook of +15% or stronger and was also a 2% increase over the Net Employment Outlook for the previous quarter (Q4 2017). (The Net Employment Outlook is derived by taking the percentage of employers anticipating an increase in hiring activity and subtracting from this the percentage of employers expecting a decrease in hiring activity.)
Industries that anticipate notable hiring increases are Durable Goods Manufacturing (+19%) and Construction (+18%), both which have their “strongest Outlooks in more than a decade.” Meanwhile, ManpowerGroup says the Transportation & Utilities (+26%) sector Outlook is the best it’s been since the survey started nearly 36 years ago (Q1 1982).
Other industries predicting a strong increase in hiring activity are Leisure & Hospitality (+28%), Professional & Business Services (+23%) and Wholesale & Retail Trade (+23%). ManpowerGroup reports that all 13 industry sectors covered in the survey plan to add staff.
Likewise, geographically, each of the four U.S. regions predicted strong starts to 2018. In the press release, ManpowerGroup notes that hiring prospects for employers in the Midwest were the highest reported since 2001. And by state, the highest Net Employment Outlooks were in Georgia, Florida, Hawaii and Utah. The survey, which also provides data on the 100 largest metropolitan statistical areas, found that employers with the strongest Outlooks were in the Cape Coral, Fla.; Ogden, Utah; Chattanooga, TN; Los Angeles, CA; Phoenix, AZ; and Charlotte, N.C.
“We’re seeing a renaissance in industries like construction and manufacturing in the U.S.,” said Becky Frankiewicz, president of ManpowerGroup North America in the press release. “These are not the jobs of the past – many are highly skilled roles that will build America’s future. Strong hiring intentions tell us employers have positions to fill, yet we know they’re struggling to find people with the right skills to fill them. Technological disruption will touch all industries sooner or later. It’s time for us to embrace this change and do more to invest in American workers. That’s what we’re doing at ManpowerGroup – from our ground-breaking partnership upskilling veterans for digital manufacturing roles with Rockwell Automation to our nationwide MyPath program that provides tools for people to accelerate their careers. We’re upskilling people today to prepare the workforce of tomorrow.”
The complete Q1 2018 survey results are available at www.manpowergroup.us/meos .