Global Jobs Downturn to Deepen, Survey Shows
NEW YORK: A measure of US employment expectations fell to its lowest level since 1982, amid fresh evidence the job market slowdown is rapidly becoming a global phenomenon, according to a quarterly survey by Manpower Inc released yesterday.
The staffing services company said its seasonally adjusted net employment outlook for the second quarter of 2009 (April-June) fell to a level of minus-1, from 10 last quarter and 15 in the second quarter of 2008. The index measures the difference between employers who plan to add jobs and those who plan to cut them.
"It's a global phenomenon," said Manpower chief executive Jeff Joerres. "It really compounds the effect of the downturn when the whole world gets into it at the same time."
The depth of the US jobs downturn and its breadth across a wide range of industries, recalls the recession of the early 1980s, Joerres said, as opposed to the 1991 and 2001 recessions, which were concentrated in the manufacturing and technology sectors, respectively.
So far, the pattern suggests the economy could hit a double bottom, as it did in the 1980s.
Fears of a false bottom - in which jobs and economic growth rebound only to drop off again - are "more intense than we've seen before", Joerres said.
"From the survey and our own conversations with clients, we don't see it getting a lot better in the second quarter, in fact potentially worse," Joerres said.
Manpower's international survey of 72,000 employers found 23 out of 33 countries and territories reporting their weakest hiring plans since the poll was established there.
In the Asia-Pacific region, some of the weakest prospects are in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and New Zealand, while employers in India are more optimistic than three months ago, possibly reflecting the offshoring of some service jobs.
Of the 17 countries surveyed in Europe and Africa, only Austria, France, Italy and South Africa showed stable or slightly higher outlooks. Among the weakest labour markets in Europe are the UK, Ireland and Spain, Manpower said.
In Poland and Romania, where the surveys have only recently been established, hiring prospects have weakened for four consecutive quarters. - Reuters
The staffing services company said its seasonally adjusted net employment outlook for the second quarter of 2009 (April-June) fell to a level of minus-1, from 10 last quarter and 15 in the second quarter of 2008. The index measures the difference between employers who plan to add jobs and those who plan to cut them.
"It's a global phenomenon," said Manpower chief executive Jeff Joerres. "It really compounds the effect of the downturn when the whole world gets into it at the same time."
The depth of the US jobs downturn and its breadth across a wide range of industries, recalls the recession of the early 1980s, Joerres said, as opposed to the 1991 and 2001 recessions, which were concentrated in the manufacturing and technology sectors, respectively.
So far, the pattern suggests the economy could hit a double bottom, as it did in the 1980s.
Fears of a false bottom - in which jobs and economic growth rebound only to drop off again - are "more intense than we've seen before", Joerres said.
"From the survey and our own conversations with clients, we don't see it getting a lot better in the second quarter, in fact potentially worse," Joerres said.
Manpower's international survey of 72,000 employers found 23 out of 33 countries and territories reporting their weakest hiring plans since the poll was established there.
In the Asia-Pacific region, some of the weakest prospects are in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and New Zealand, while employers in India are more optimistic than three months ago, possibly reflecting the offshoring of some service jobs.
Of the 17 countries surveyed in Europe and Africa, only Austria, France, Italy and South Africa showed stable or slightly higher outlooks. Among the weakest labour markets in Europe are the UK, Ireland and Spain, Manpower said.
In Poland and Romania, where the surveys have only recently been established, hiring prospects have weakened for four consecutive quarters. - Reuters
quoted from: Business Times
