Reports Cite Continued Slow Job Growth
Two new reports cite small gains in the U.S. job market in August and a forecast of continued slow growth across the globe for the last three months of 2012.
The Conference Board said its Employment Trends Index improved slightly in August for the second straight month. Meanwhile, employment specialist ManpowerGroup said most countries should see gains in their job markets, although to varying degrees. Manpower said employers in 22 of 42 labor markets it measures report improved or relatively stable hiring intentions for the fourth quarter over the current quarter.
In the United States, "employers remain confident enough to maintain the same steady hiring pace seen over the past year," said Jeffrey A. Joerres, the company's chairman and CEO. "There is so much uncertainty in the global labor market now and that is undermining employer hiring confidence. If these uncertainties—the debt crisis in Europe, rumblings of a slowdown in China, the U.S. presidential election and health-care costs coming in that can't be calculated—keep stacking up, we will see the global labor market's slow, steady hiring mode shift to a pause."
Meanwhile, The Conference Board said its trends index has barely increased since February, suggesting slow job growth will continue "in the short term," according to Gad Devanon, the New York-based organization's director of macroeconomic research.
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