Survey finds "fair" outlook for 2009.
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Central Texas employers have modest plans to add jobs in the first three months of 2009, according to a Manpower Inc. survey set to be released today.
The employment services firm, which surveyed a sample of employers in the country's 200 largest metropolitan regions, found that 15 percent of firms in the five-county area planned to add jobs in the first quarter of the new year.
That figure is significantly lower than the anticipated hiring in the Houston and Dallas areas, but it is on par with the study's national findings: 16 percent of surveyed U.S. employers said they expect to add jobs during the same period — the smallest share of employers with hiring plans in the past five quarters of tracked data.
"A significant percentage ... of employers plan to hold staff levels steady," Jeffrey Joerres, chairman and CEO of Manpower, said in a statement. "This may suggest that a majority of employers are carefully monitoring the uncertain economic environment prior to making any additional employment decisions."
So far, Central Texas has continued to add jobs and have relatively low unemployment, escaping the full impact of the national economic turmoil. However, the Manpower study suggests that the region will continue to feel the effects of the downturn in the new year.
The Manpower study says 70 percent of area employers expect to maintain their current staffing levels, 10 percent expect to cut jobs and the remaining 5 percent are unsure. The strongest sectors locally include construction, financial activities, leisure and hospitality (which includes hotels) and government.
The local survey "looked better than I anticipated," said Shirley Sanders, branch manager for Manpower Inc.'s South Austin office. "I thought we would have a higher percentage expecting to reduce. So we have modest gains, which is encouraging."
Overall, 67 percent of 31,800 surveyed employers expect to "sit on the sidelines," Jonas Prising, president of Manpower North America, said in a statement. Thirteen percent expect to cut jobs, and 5 percent are unsure.
The Houston region, a 10-county area that includes Sugar Land and Baytown, is among the top places for hiring, the survey found. Manpower reported that 26 percent of sampled employers there said they plan to add jobs, 62 percent plan to maintain staffing levels and 6 percent plan to cut jobs.
Twenty percent of employers in the 12-county Dallas region and 17 percent of San Antonio employers said they plan to add jobs.
In a broader measure of the overall health of the job markets, several Texas cities made the list of strongest areas. The Texas cities included oil towns such as Beaumont, Houston and Amarillo and border cities including Laredo, McAllen, Brownsville and El Paso.
Among major tech cities, San Jose, Calif., ranked among the country's weakest job markets. Only 9 percent of the area's employers plan to add jobs in the first three months of 2009 while 17 percent said they planned job cuts.
The job outlook was more like Austin's in other tech cities. Seventeen percent of surveyed employers in Seattle said they planned to hire, and 13 percent of surveyed employers in Raleigh, N.C., said they would add jobs in the first quarter.
cgrisales@statesman.com; 912-5933
