Companies put the brakes on new hires
Twenty-seven percent of hiring managers said they planned to increase their staffs in the last three months of the year, down from 32 percent who said they expanded their payrolls in the third quarter and 41 percent in the second quarter, according to an online survey for USA TODAY and CareerBuilder.com by Harris Interactive.
"The job market has weakened measurably since the spring and will weaken further through the end of the year," says Mark Zandi, of Moody's Economy.com.
But there was a silver lining in the survey. While fewer employers said they planned to hire at the end of the year, fewer also said they planned to fire. Six percent said they planned to cut staff in the fourth quarter, down from 9 percent who said they reduced their workforces in the third quarter, the survey found.
Nearly two-thirds of the employers expected to leave their staff size as is.
The survey, conducted Aug. 10-Sept. 4, involved more than 2,700 hiring managers and human resource professionals. CareerBuilder.com is a job-finding site jointly owned by Tribune, McClatchy, Microsoft and USA TODAY parent Gannett.
North Haven, Conn.-based Mauro Motors is trying to add salespeople and mechanics to its 176-employee staff.
Sales at its General Motors dealership have slowed, particularly for trucks that previously had been popular with those in the construction and landscaping industries when the housing market was booming. But sales at the firm's other two dealerships, which sell Mercedes and BMWs, are going strong, sales and marketing director Lewis Mitnick says.
"Business is steady," he says, noting people who buy luxury vehicles are less affected by slowdowns in the economy.
Despite the slowing job market, many employers, such as Mitnick, say they continue to struggle to find the right workers to fill openings. Forty-four percent of hiring managers said they had openings they could not fill in the third quarter, up from 42 percent in the second quarter.
Jeanine Rhea, general manager at the Hampton Inn & Suites in Yuma, Ariz., said she is struggling to find people to fill a variety of jobs, including front desk workers and housekeepers. With more hotels being built in the area and competing for employees, Rhea says the hotel increased pay an average of 12 percent in August.
"It's hurt my budget ... but I can't have my employees leave me," she says.
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