If you want fries with that, you have several downtown dining options.But fast food – which is sold on dozens of street corners around town – isn’t enough to draw people to the city’s core.If a widely respected hiring poll is on point, optimism over job creation is better than a year ago.
For October to December, 20 percent of Indiana employers interviewed said they expect to increase staffing levels, according to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey released today. But here’s where it gets tricky: 70 percent of the companies will sit pat, while 9 percent will make cuts and 1 percent were unsure. So Manpower projects a net hiring increase among 11 percent of employers.
“Obviously, we still have some work to do,” said Joshua Long, associate professor of economics at Ivy Tech Northeast. “If you talk to people on the street you will hear about those still having a hard time finding work or a job that pays them the same salary they had before the recession.”
Last year, 17 percent of the employers surveyed said they would hire more workers. So, 20 percent is progress, right?
“Sadly, those numbers aren’t increasing as aggressively as we would like,” Long said. “But when you look at where (metro Fort Wayne) started the year – (9 percent unemployment), compared to 7.6 percent in July – we are headed in the right direction.”
Manpower, a research and employment services firm, questioned 282 Indiana companies about their intentions. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 0.61 percent.
Nationally, 18,000 employers were surveyed and 17 percent of them said they expected to hire more workers. Nine percent anticipate a drop in the number of employees, while 72 percent expected no change. Two percent were undecided.
Manpower officials noted that this year’s fourth quarter outlook is the most optimistic in five years.
“Once again, the data is showing stability and continued, moderate growth,” Jonas Prising, Manpower Group president, said in a statement. “Even among the industries, steady progression is a trend. Education and health services, in particular, (are) stronger this quarter than in the last three years.”
Long said such statistics would take some deeper digging to truly ascertain how the national and local economies are faring. Even so, declining unemployment is worth mentioning, he said.
“Yes, it is slow progress, but it is progress,” Long said. “If there’s a silver lining, that’s it.”
