More than half of the companies (58%) expect no change in their hiring pace from the third quarter, while 27% expect to boost hiring activity in the fourth quarter. Only 9% reported plans to trim payrolls during the final three months of the year.
The survey, conducted quarterly by global staffing firm Manpower Inc., showed little change from last year's fourth-quarter forecast.
Hiring Plans Are Conservative
"It is not unexpected that U.S. employers have conservative hiring plans for the fourth quarter," said Jeffrey A. Joerres, chairman and CEO of Manpower. "The market forces that impact hiring do not conclusively point toward growth or decline, and that is a likely contributor to the prudent hiring trends apparent in the survey throughout 2007."
Surveys conducted by Robert Half International (RHI) on hiring for financial and technology jobs yielded similar forecasts.
Of more than 1,400 chief information officers interviewed for the RHI survey, 83% said they see no change in fourth-quarter hiring. But 14% anticipate adding information technology staff, with Western states leading the trend.
Of a similar number of chief financial officers surveyed for the RHI Financial Hiring Index, 9% said they plan to increase hiring during the fourth quarter.
Will the Momentum Last?
The surveys follow a Labor Day 2007 report from the federal government that declared the U.S. workforce is "healthy, competitive, and growing" -- despite "recent market uncertainties" fueled largely by the subprime mortgage crisis.
The report from the U.S. Department of Labor noted, among other statistics, that the unemployment rate remained near record lows through the first half of 2007, ranging between 4.4 and 4.6%. As of June 2007, total jobs reached an all-time high of 138 million, nearly 5.5 million more jobs than the pre-recession high of February 2001, the report said.
Despite the positive assessment, U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao warned that the country faces a "skills gap" that could affect long-term hiring trends.
"The majority of new jobs created over the next decade will require more skills, higher education and pay above average wages, so it is important to ensure that workers are able to get the education and training they need to access these growing opportunities," she said.