Career Builder recently released their 3rd Quarter forecast. It shows some encouraging and discouraging results. The number of companies reporting plans to reduce staffing levels in the next quarter has declined. That’s good news. In the 2nd quarter forecast, 17% of companies planned to cut staff, and now the figure stands at 10%.
Unfortunately, the report also shows that companies are slow to start to hiring. The percentage of companies reporting that they plan on increasing staffing levels also declined. The result is an increase in the number of companies holding staffing levels even.
This is good news if you are employed. The odds of getting downsized are declining. Companies made substantial cuts very quickly. They are now leaner and able to weather a recession. If you are unemployed, the outlook isn’t as positive. Companies will replace workers that leave, but won’t add to the workforce. This will make the competition for jobs high for the foreseeable future.
Eventually, every recession will naturally come to an end. People and companies are using up inventory and will need to replace it. At home, this is putting off repairs to the house or keeping a car for an extra year or two. In business, this is delaying equipment upgrades and replacements, new product introductions and investments in new product development. At some point, everything will wear out and need to be replaced. At that point, we will have tremendous pent up demand and the economy will start to expand.
This may sound good in theory, but if you’re out of work and need a paycheck, it doesn’t put food on the table tonight. To land a job, you need to show the value you will provide to the company. The best way to do this is to show how you contributed in the past above and beyond expectations.
Check out the full report at http://img.icbdr.com/images/jp/content/pdf/Q3-09-RBU.pdf