Benefits April 24, 2007

May Upsurge in Service Sector Hiring Predicted

April 24, 2007 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Predictions of new hires in the service sector show employers plan to bring on more staff in the next five weeks, but hiring in the manufacturing area is projected to be weaker in May than a year ago.
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A news release from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) said that was a key conclusion of the April 2007 report of its Leading Indicator of National Employment (LINE) index, prepared with the Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations.

According to the announcement, the LINE employment expectations index indicates that, compared with a year ago, new-hire compensation is rising more slowly within manufacturing, but faster within the service sector.

Also, within the manufacturing and service sectors, recruiting difficulty continues to be a major concern. Firms still find it hard to locate the skilled talent they need. Hourly service jobs go unfilled, as the number of vacant positions that employers are actively trying to fill is rising within the non-exempt service-sector, the report said.

Within the manufacturing sector, the employment expectations index slipped from 49.7 in April 2007 to 43.2 in May 2007. The May 2007 index (43.2) is substantially below the May 2006 index (49.4). The new-hire compensation index for April 2007 is well below the levels of a year ago (10 versus 12.8). This is consistent with the slower manufacturing growth.

The news release said the April 2007 exempt and non-exempt vacancy indexes (16.3 and 17.2) are both below the levels of April 2006 (27.9 and 22.4). In spite of fewer vacant positions and fewer exempt and non-exempt vacancies within manufacturing, the April 2007 recruiting difficulty index (18.3) is only slightly below the level of April 2006 (18.7).

More information is at www.shrm.org/LINE .

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