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August 2009 Hiring Expectations Up for Second Consecutive Month

Human resources professionals say August hiring expectations for the manufacturing and service sectors will outpace layoffs, marking the second consecutive month for positive news, according to the Society for Human Resource Management's (SHRM) LINE® Employment Report.

In the manufacturing sector, a net total of 11% of companies will add jobs this month — 32.6% will hire workers while 21.6% will cut staffing levels. The number marks the highest level of manufacturing sector planned hiring in 10 months (since last October).

The service sector also shows improvement, with a net total of 16.9% of companies planning to add jobs in August. Specifically, 28.9% of HR professionals surveyed said their companies will add jobs while 12% said their companies will decrease headcount. The responses mark the fourth consecutive month that the service sector hiring rate will surpass the layoff rate.

"The slowdown in layoffs is good news for the economy but new-hire compensation packages continue to take a hit or remain flat as employers seek to control costs while recruiting much needed employees to keep businesses performing," said Jennifer Schramm, manager of workplace trends and forecasting at SHRM.

The findings are detailed in the August 2009 LINE Employment Report — also called the SHRM Leading Indicators of National Employment Report — a set of labor market indicators that forecast changes to four national employment measures: job expectations, job vacancies, new-hire compensation and recruitment difficulty.