SHRM: February Growth Expected to Continue

February 22, 2005 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - February manufacturing employment figures rebounded from a lackadaisical January, according to the Leading Indicator of National Employment (LINE), from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and Rutgers University.

LINE is measured on a scale, with a score of above 50 implying that employment is growing. For February, manufacturing employment had a LINE score of 60.4, well above January’s pace of 55.8. This is due to a larger number of job vacancies seen in January, according to SHRM, and this trend should continue into March, with the manufacturing vacancies figure rising to 65.3 on the month, slightly above January’s 63.7.

Recruiting difficulty and new hire compensation figures were at 53 and 54.2, respectively. These figures are not significantly altered from January.

Employment expectations for the next 30 days are strong, according to the LINE figure of 70.3. This is up slightly from the 69.3 seen in January. The January figure predicted strong employment growth, as was seen on the month. In December, the figure was a much lower 60.5.

LINE was first released in November, 2004 (SeeSHRM and Rutgers to Jointly Release Monthly Employment Indicator).

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