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[ articles | activities | features | links ] Saturday, March 13, 2004 Job prospects strong for local economyBy JIM HAUG DAYTONA BEACH — More than a quarter of local businesses – 33 percent – expect to hire in the next three months, according to a Manpower survey. Ten percent of employers anticipate some cutbacks in their payrolls. The other 57 percent expect to keep their current staff levels. The jobs outlook is not quite as optimistic as a year ago when only 3 percent of local businesses anticipated decreases in hiring. Manpower, the staffing agency, surveyed 16,000 employers nationally about their hiring expectations for the second quarter of 2004, which are the months of April, May and June. Nationally, 28 percent of employers said they planned to hire more workers in the coming months while 6 percent anticipated some cutbacks. Manpower said this was the third consecutive quarter of increased hiring activity. Locally, job prospects appear best in construction, nondurable goods manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, and the service industry. Hiring for durable goods manufacturing, transportation/utilities and public administration will remain unchanged. Lou Fifer, president of the Volusia Manufacturers Association, was bullish on the local economy. Anecdotally, he knows many manufacturers are in “the hiring mode,” looking for more skilled labor, such as supervisors and workers with electronics and computer skills. “I don’t know of any mass layoffs,” Fifer said. Hiring intentions were mixed for the finance, insurance and real estate sectors. Because of summer vacation, schools will decrease employment.
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