By Amulya Nagaraj: Subscribe to Amulya's RSS feed
September 7, 2010 12:54 PM EDT
Economic concerns continue to weigh on the minds of U.S. employers, even as developing nations such as China, India, Taiwan and Brazil outpace the rest of the world in terms of hiring expectations, a report by Manpower Inc said.
Employers in 28 of 36 countries and territories expect positive hiring activity in the fourth quarter, the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey stated, naming the four regions as having the strongest fourth-quarter prospects.
"Continued strong domestic growth is fueling stronger job prospects in all industry sectors in China and Taiwan from three months ago. As a result, the talent wars are waging again as companies struggle to retain the talent they need," CEO Jeffrey Joerres said in a statement.
A forecast by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology indicated that industrial output growth will rise about 10 percent from last year in the second half of 2010. That compares with July's 13.4 percent and the 17.6 percent average for the first half of the year. The data for August will be released next Monday.
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However, Greece, Italy, the Czech Republic, Spain and Ireland were reported to have the weakest hiring plans for the upcoming quarter.
"European labor markets have yet to gain real traction due in part to the uncertainty in Greece and Italy," Manpower said.
However, finance and business services sectors are seeing improvements in the region particularly in Switzerland, Germany and Norway, the report added.
"The German labor market continues to be resilient; however lack of talent, especially engineers, healthcare professionals and sales staff, is becoming a real issue for employers in many sectors."
In contrast, unemployment in the US rose marginally in August to 9.6 percent, according to a report by the U.S. Labor Department. It had been constant at 9.5 percent for the past 3 months. However, in a sign that positive times might be around the corner, the drop in employment rates was less than expected, with the private sector adding about 67,000 jobs in the month.
Consumer confidence in the U.S. is on a rollercoaster after home sales soared in April. However, June saw a steep slump in consumer confidence after home sales fell the previous month. Subsequent pending home sales and existing home sales data have been low, indicating that people may not be as confident about the recovering economy.
A report last week by Towers Watson, a professional services company, indicated that older workers' confidence in their ability to retire comfortably has rebounded modestly from the last year but remains much below the levels before the financial crisis.
The percentage of employees who are content with their financial situation today has risen slightly to 33 percent this year from March 2009, the report stated.
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