Lukewarm hiring forecast for Q3

Almost three-quarters of London employers say staffing levels to remain the same; 26 per cent plan to boost hiring

Photo: Scott Webb on Unsplash

ACCORDING TO THE latest ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey, London-area employers are expecting a moderate hiring pace over the next three months (Q3 2021).

Almost three-quarters (74 per cent) of employers expect staffing levels to remain unchanged, while 26 per cent of employers plan to boost levels and no employers reported anticipated cutbacks.

“With seasonal variations removed from the data, London’s third quarter Net Employment Outlook is plus-20 per cent,” says Charity Magowan of Manpower’s Stoney Creek office. “Though this is a six-percentage point decrease compared to the previous quarterly outlook, London’s anticipated hiring pace for the upcoming months can be described as solid.”

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Nationally, the outlook is somewhat similar, with three-quarters expecting staffing levels to remain unchanged while 17 per cent plan to boost levels, four per cent anticipate cutbacks and four per cent are unsure.

Without seasonal variations, the net employment outlook for Canada is eight per cent, unchanged from the previous quarter but an 18-percentage point increase from the forecast reported during the same time last year (though the recruitment group notes that Q3, 2020 was the weakest quarter for employment outlook since it began the survey in 1978).

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“Widespread vaccination and settling of the pandemic may well be contributing to an increase in employers planning to return to workplace-based working for the third quarter of 2021,” adds Darlene Minatel, country manager of ManpowerGroup Canada. “With all ten industry sectors expecting to hire in the upcoming quarter, and hiring intentions steady across all four regions, there will continue to be opportunities for job seekers.”

Overall, Canadian employers’ net employment outlook of 8 per cent ranks them 24th among 43 countries in terms of their hiring optimism in the third quarter, Manpower’s global survey shows. American employers are most optimistic (plus-25 per cent) about hiring new staff in the third quarter, followed by companies in Taiwan (plus-24 per cent) and Australia (plus-17 per cent).