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10/10/04
Rest of '04 should bring more jobs, survey says Good news for workers: Employers are starting to hire again, and mass layoffs are declining. A quarterly survey of 119 US employers by the Bureau of National Affairs Inc., a private publisher whose newsletters track workplace trends, suggests demand for production, service, technical, and professional workers will increase in the fourth quarter of 2004. Nineteen percent of the employers polled said they plan to add production and service staff from October through December, up from 14 percent in the last quarter of 2003. Twenty percent said they will increase the number of technical and professional workers on their payrolls this quarter, up from 15 percent last year at this time. Many of the employers surveyed are manufacturers. ''Compared with the same period a year ago, fourth-quarter projections for hiring technical and professional employees have increased markedly among manufacturing firms,'' the BNA said. ''More modest changes have been recorded among employers in the non-manufacturing sector and non-business sector.'' Specialists attribute the uptick to staff increases planned by small and midsize firms that anticipate greater demand for their services, want to fill vacancies as they prepare for 2005, or have created new units and need additional staff. Massachusetts employers are expected to continue to hire throughout the fourth quarter, according to a recent survey by Manpower Inc., a staffing firm. It found that the employment outlook will be best in wholesale and retail trade, education, and public administration. In all, 20 percent of employers in the Boston area plan to hire, up from just 10 percent last year. But not everyone will be in demand. While hiring for technical employees, professionals, and production workers is expected to rise, the BNA said projected hiring for clerical and office workers will remain flat. Twelve percent of the employers the company polled plan to add clerical or office positions in the fourth quarter, nearly unchanged from the 11 percent who were planning to hire in the preceding two quarters. Last year, however, only 8 percent of employers were expecting to add clerical staff. One reason payrolls are likely to expand this quarter: seasonal hiring. With Thanksgiving and Christmas approaching, many employers are gearing up. Overall, the uptick in hiring was preceded by a sharp decline in the number of big layoffs at US firms, the BNA said. Mass layoffs are recorded by state governments when at least 50 workers from a single employer sign up for unemployment insurance benefits. Statistics from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics show 233,852 people lost jobs in mass layoffs in the second quarter of 2004, down from 430,499 in the second quarter of 2001. The number recorded this year was the lowest since the second quarter of 2000. The BNA said 11 percent of the workers who lost jobs in the second quarter of 2004 were affected by the movement of work from one division of a company to another in the United States or abroad, or the movement of work from one company to another either here or abroad. The study shows that 21 percent of the job losses in the second quarter of 2004 were in manufacturing, and 11 percent in transportation and warehousing. ''Layoffs due to the completion of seasonal work accounted for 37 percent of the extended layoffs and resulted in 101,457 employee separations in the second quarter,'' the BNA said. In other cases, employers shut down permanently, causing 30,263 workers to lose employment between April and June 2004.
Poll: Healthcare tops working women's list US working women are focused on domestic rather than international affairs, says the Business and Professional Women's Foundation. With the presidential election approaching, it polled 7,377 working women to find out what matters most to them. Seventy-nine percent said they were especially concerned about jobs and education. Just 21 percent were worried about issues like international trade and terrorism. Eighty-seven percent of the Democrats and 67 percent of the Republicans were concerned about domestic issues. The most important issue? Healthcare. Overall, 98 percent said healthcare costs were a chief concern. Only 2 percent said it was of minor importance. Eighty-six percent said healthcare benefits are among the most important in the US workplace. About 57 percent ranked flexible work schedules as a top workplace benefit, 53 percent chose family leave, and 52 percent said sick leave and disability coverage. ''Healthcare emerging as a key concern should probably not come as a surprise, since nearly one in five American workers has no health insurance and many others have inadequate coverage,'' said Sheila Barry-Oliver, chairwoman of the organization's Foundation Research and Education Committee. Vicky Lovell, study director of the Institute for Women's Policy Research, a think tank in Washington, said women are more focused on economic security, including ''finding a good job, being able to afford healthcare, buying a home, and ensuring that they have enough to live on when they retire.'' Many companies lack terror response plan Three years after the terrorist attacks, some companies lack procedures to follow in the event of another attack. Research by Korn/Ferry International, an executive recruiting and consulting firm, shows many are unprepared. Korn/Ferry surveyed 2,000 US executives, and 47 percent said their companies have no procedures in place. Eleven percent said they were not sure if their companies have implemented any precautionary measures. In all, 42 percent said their companies took action after the Sept. 11 attacks and have continued to update and maintain security precautions. For many companies, it's business as usual as they strive to maintain normalcy, said Philip Deming of Philip S. Deming & Associates, a Pennsylvania risk-management firm. He said many companies found the cost of security officers and surveillance systems exorbitant. As a result, many have cut back. According to Korn/Ferry, 62 percent of currently employed executives surveyed said they feel secure in their offices. This reflects ''a broad sense of safety in America's workplaces,'' Korn/Ferry said. Two percent of the executives said they felt insecure. The survey also showed 48 percent think the economy is still being affected by terrorism, while 11 percent said the economy is not being negatively affected by terrorist attacks abroad, a 1 percentage point increase over last year. --DIANE E. LEWIS
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