More metro Atlanta companies are looking to hire than fire in the third quarter, a new survey shows.
The Manpower Employment Outlook found that 19 percent of employers in the Atlanta area expect to increase staff from July to September, while 6 percent foresee reducing staff levels in that period. The rest either plan to maintain current levels or weren't sure.
The result is a net gain in the local employment outlook of 13 percentage points, down slightly from recent periods.
One year ago, in the third quarter of 2011, 22 percent of employers in the Atlanta area expected to increase staffing and 6 percent foresaw reducing the number of employees, for a net employment outlook gain of 16 percentage points.
The net employment outlook for the current quarter, April through June, was 15 percentage points.
Manpower called the employment forecast for Atlanta "slightly weaker" but said employers still expect to hire "at a solid pace" in the coming quarter.
The area forecast is better than Georgia's as a whole. The net employment outlook statewide is 8 percentage points for the third quarter. That's down from 14 percentage points a year ago and from 12 percentage points in the current quarter.
Manpower spokeswoman Beth Herman said concern over the decline in the net employment outlook for Atlanta should be tempered by the increase in the number of employers expecting to maintain their current employment levels. That increased to 73 percent from 69 percent in the second quarter and 70 percent a year ago.
She also said that this marks the 11th straight quarter with a positive net employment outlook in Atlanta, a significant turn for the better compared with the negative employment outlooks that were seen during the recession.
Manpower surveys 18,000 employers across the U.S. quarterly for the outlook.
Nationwide, 21 percent of employers expect to add to their workforces, with 6 percent foreseeing a decline in their payrolls. After removing seasonal variations from the data, the net employment outlook for the third quarter is 11 percentage points, about on par with what it was last year and in the current quarter.
