While August's hiring gains are expected to be small, they should surpass the rate from August 2011, according to the Leading Indicators of National Employment report from the Society for Human Resource Management.
In fact, the report, which includes responses from 500 service-sector companies and 500 manufacturing companies, finds that service-sector hiring is believed to grow by a net of 9.4 points while manufacturing-sector hiring is expected to increase by a net of five points from August 2011 to August 2012.
Among service-sector respondents, 33.8 percent say they plan to hire, and another 5.2 percent say they anticipate cutting staff for a hiring net of 28.6 percent. The outstanding 71.4 percent do not anticipate making staffing changes in August.
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For the manufacturing sector, 49 percent of respondents say they expect to hire workers while 8.4 percent plan to cut jobs. This marks a positive net of 40.6 percent. The other 59.4 percent say they do not intend to make any labor changes.
"A second piece of good news is that this month marks the first time since April 2011 that the year-over-year comparisons for employment expectations showed an increase in both sectors," says Jennifer Schramm, GPHR, and manager of workplace trends and forecasting at SHRM. "HR professionals in the manufacturing and services sectors also reported a slight year-over-year increase in recruiting difficulty for their jobs of most strategic importance. The rise in the employment expectations and recruiting difficulty indices are faint but positive signs nonetheless."
A net 15.9 percent of manufacturing sector respondents report experiencing more difficulty in recruiting during July. Of the service-sector respondents, a net of 5.1 percent report greater recruiting difficulty during last month.
"New-hire compensation in July proved mixed — on an annual basis the net increase rose slightly in manufacturing while it fell in services," Schramm says.
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