Manpower’s quarterly survey is often considered a bellwether of the upcoming labor market.  The Wall Street Journal reports on this trend in Hiring Plans Soften Across Industries.

The title sounds a dire alarm, but there  is an interesting quote within the article:

Jonas Prising, president of Manpower North America, characterized employers’ hiring plans for the upcoming quarter as “softening.” He noted the decline is less sharp than the steep drops seen at the beginning of the decade. In some quarters of 2000, up to 25% of employers planned to hire, but then employers’ hiring plans declined sharply, and the portion planning to hire hit about 5% by early 2002.

“This curve doesn’t look anything like the curves that we have seen when things have gone into recession,” Mr. Prising said. “Some [employers] have decided to stop hiring, but you’re not seeing a massive shift, you’re not seeing a huge jump. Some are more cautious and that’s why you get a softer declining trend and not such a dramatic fall-off.”

Interesting, don’t you think?  The economy has certainly slowed down, but the howls of recession seem to be more than premature.

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