Compiled By CityTownInfo.com Staff
December 31, 2009
Results of a survey released this week indicated that more employers are planning to increase hiring in 2010.
According to CareerBuilder's 2010 Job Forecast, 20 percent of employers expect to increase the number of full-time, permanent employees in 2010--up from 14 percent last year. Meanwhile, only 9 percent of employers in the survey said they planned to reduce their number of employees in 2010, down from 16 percent last year. The majority of the 2,720 hiring managers and personnel executives surveyed--61 percent--said they don't plan to change staff levels.
Despite employers' cautiousness, Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder, said in a statement that the survey indicated reason for optimism. "There have been many signs over the past few months that point to the healing of the U.S. economy," he was quoted as saying in CNNMoney.com, "especially the continued decrease in the number of jobs lost per month."
CareerBuilder said that one-third of the new jobs will be in technology, 23 percent will be in sales, and 28 percent will be in customer service.
"There's definitely an uptick," noted Michael Erwin, senior career adviser at CareerBuilder, who was quoted by Reuters [from an article originally located at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34619553/ns/business-careers/]. "The number of employees who say they're going to add full-time workers is up from last year, and that is very good news."
Nevertheless, he said, "Employers are waiting to see what the economy does and what the new year brings."
The news was not all good. Only 57 percent of employers predicted there would be higher salaries for existing employees in 2010, down from 65 percent in 2009. In addition, only 29 percent expected to increase salary offers to new employees, compared to 33 percent in 2009.
Similarly, benefits and perks were expected to decrease as well. A full 37 percent of employers planned to cut back on bonuses, medical insurance and matching retirement contributions, compared to 32 percent in 2009.
The mixed results of the CareerBuilder survey were similar to the results of the Consumer Confidence Survey conducted by the Conference Board, which indicated that while consumer confidence has risen, Americans are still pessimistic about the present.
Consumer Confidence Survey respondents expecting more jobs to become available next year increased from 15.8 percent to 16.2 percent. In addition, consumers who expected an increase in incomes decreased slightly to 10.3 percent from 10.9 percent.
"While the worst of the economic times are behind us, it's not euphoria," noted Lynn Franco, director of the board's Consumer Research Center, who was quoted in the Los Angeles Times. "Confidence is stronger than when we started the year, but for much of the last several months we've been moving sideways."
