Throughout 2011, employer hiring plans remained mostly flat during the last three quarters of 2011, and signs point to a slow first quarter of 2012, according to a recent quarterly survey by BNA, a legal, regulatory and business information provider.
"There is a great deal of uncertainty right now," says BNA Surveys Director Matthew Sottong. "Poor economic performance not only in the U.S. but also abroad gridlock on Capital Hill and the run-up to a presidential election where the outcome is very much in doubt … all of those factors lead to timidity on the part of business to expand and hire new people. Until some of those factors are resolved, we are very likely to continue to see flat or slowing job growth in all business sectors."
Of the respondents, only 21 percent expect to hire production and service staff in the first quarter of 2012, a drop from 26 percent since the fourth quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2011. Larger organizations of 1,000 employees are more are seeing bigger hiring projections declines than smaller organizations at 29 percent compared to 15 percent.
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Twenty-eight percent of respondents plan to hire technical and professional staff in the first quarter of 2012, which is down from 31 percent from the previous quarter and the first quarter of 2011. Hiring estimations through 2011 stayed around the 30 percent mark.
The survey also finds that there has been less employer demand for office and clerical workers. In fact, 13 percent of respondents plan to bring on least some office and clerical staff in the first quarter of 2012, which is down from 19 percent from last quarter and 18 percent from the first quarter of 2011.
Expected work force reductions cutbacks also reveal a potential softening in the job market, with 12 percent of respondents expecting to cut back their production and service staffs in the first quarter of 2012, an uptick from 10 percent from the fourth quarter of 2011 and 7 percent since the first quarter of 2011. Projected demand drops for technical and professional workers are up only up to 7 percent from 6 percent since last quarter, but since the first quarter of 2011, anticipated reductions in technical and professional staff have grown from 3 percent to 7 percent.
Among the respondents, 47 percent say they had trouble filling technical and professional positions in the fourth quarter of 2011, as opposed to 44 percent in the previous quarter and 43 percent one year earlier. Seven percent of respondents report having office and clerical vacancies in the fourth quarter, which is the same from last quarter and slightly up from 6 percent since the fourth quarter of 2010.
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