Strong hiring ahead seen for Dayton

24% of area employers plan 3rd-quarter staff boost, Manpower says.

Fueled in part by a stubborn need for manufacturing workers, hiring in the Dayton area will continue at a strong clip in the next quarter, according to the latest ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey.

Among employers surveyed, 24 percent plan to hire more employees from July through September, Manpower said.

That number is offset by the 6 percent of surveyed employers who plan to shrink their workforces. Meanwhile, 70 percent of surveyed employers expect to make no change to staffing number.

That yields what Manpower calls a “net employment outlook” of 18 percent — the number of surveyed employers who plan to cut staffing subtracted from the number of surveyed employers who plan to hire.

The second quarter’s net employment outlook was 17 percent. At this time in 2017, however, the net employment outlook was a stronger 24 percent.

Manpower typically does not say how many employers it surveys to arrive at its local numbers.

As usual in the Dayton area, job prospects look best in durable and non-durable goods manufacturing.

Other strong hiring sectors include wholesale and retail trade, information, professional and business services and hospitality and leisure, according to Manpower. Hiring in construction, transportation and utilities, education and more are expected to be unchanged, Manpower said.

Nationally, of the more than 11,500 employers surveyed, 23 percent expect to add to their workforces and 3 percent expect a decline in their payrolls in the third quarter of 2018, Manpower said.

Seventy-three percent of employers anticipate making no change to staffing levels and the remaining 1 percent of employers are undecided about their hiring plans.

Earlier this month, the federal government reported that the national unemployment rate in May marked the nation’s lowest jobless rate since April 2000.

The U.S. economy added 223,000 jobs in May, well above economists’ consensus expectation of 185,000.

Beyond the low jobless rate, wages for non-supervisory workers rose 2.8 percent in May compared to May 2017, the best annual gain since July 2009. Contact this reporter at 937-2252390 or email tom.Gnau@coxinc. com.