Hiring is expected to continue as optimism regarding growth in the U.S. jobs market is believed to improve, according to data from two reports by the Society for Human Resource Management.
In fact, the SHRM Leading Indicators of National Employment report for April 2012 reveals that a net 43.3 percent of manufacturers say they will add jobs while a net 20.1 percent of service-sector companies report the same. These positive net numbers are because more employers are planning to hire than reduce workers. In the manufacturing sector, 50.3 percent of employers say they plan hire workers, and only 7 percent say they plan to cut jobs. Thirty-three percent of service sector employers say they anticipate adding workers to their staffs as 12.9 percent say they plan to reduce work force numbers.
While these figures are positive, they still lag on an annual basis. When looking at April 2012 as opposed to April 2011, manufacturing sector employment fell 5.2 points, and service-sector hiring dropped 17.5 points.
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In March 2012, recruiting difficulty increased 8.1 points in the manufacturing sector and 4.8 points in the service sector in comparison to March 2011, the report shows. Year-over-year comparisons show new-hire compensation also saw slight increases by 2.6 points in the manufacturing sector and 5.9 points in the service sector.
"If employment expectations and new-hire compensation continue to improve, HR professionals may need to prepare for increased turnover as employees begin to seek out new career opportunities," says Jennifer Schramm, GPHR, and manager of workplace trends and forecasting at SHRM.
According to HR professionals interviewed in the Jobs Outlook Survey Report, the positive findings are expected to continue. This survey shows that 58 percent of respondents have some degree of confidence in the U.S. job market for the second quarter of 2012. Ten percent of respondent say they are very optimistic while 48 percent of respondents say they are somewhat optimistic when it comes to job growth.
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