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Soft Labor Market for May 2008

HR professionals who recruit and hire employees across the country forecast manufacturing and service sector hiring will drop sharply in May 2008 as compared with one year ago reveal the latest findings from the SHRM/Rutgers Leading Indicators of National Employment® (LINE®). LINE data also show that increases in wages for new hires in the manufacturing sector dropped modestly in April as compared to one year ago while those in the service sector fell slightly. “HR professionals tell us that the job slowdown will likely continue into May,” says Jennifer Schramm, SHRM manager of workplace trends and forecasting. “Firms in both the manufacturing and service sectors have significantly lower expectations when it comes to hiring compared with this time last year. For employers looking to fill positions, especially in the service sector, recruitment looks like it is becoming easier than it has been over the last few years,” Schramm adds. According to the LINE index, manufacturing employment expectations dropped 13.2 points compared with May 2007. This index declined from 43.2 in May 2007 to 30.0 in May 2008. In addition, the LINE index of employment expectations for the service sector dropped 16.5 points from May 2007 to May 2008 (52.0 compared with 35.5). Furthermore, May 2007, saw private service-sector employment rose by 165,000 jobs on a seasonally adjusted basis and by 686,000 jobs on a not seasonally adjusted basis.