Sign of revival: Demand grows for white-collar workers - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):

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Official government statistics, which can lag a montj or two, have shown a levelinvg off of major layoffs and an incremental decrease in regionalpunemployment rates, but some recruiteras and employment agents say there appeare to be more activity happening in real time that may be reflectes in the data soon. “We had the best monthg we’ve had all in May, in terms of direcf placementsin permanent, full-time said Gary Graham Jr., presidentr of in Greensboro. He declinecd to share exact numbersof full-timde workers placed recently, but he said temporary assignments have also increased, from around 140 or 150 per week earluy this year to an average of abouty 250 per week now.
Pierss Clarkson, director of executive recruitinvg atin Winston-Salem, said he’s seeint strong signals of increased confidence, particularly in financial industried such as banking and mortgage financingv that have suffered some of the biggestg scares during the recession. “jI think most of the layoffs are probablyh in thepast now. Most companies are beyond that Clarkson said. While he didn’t have solid numbers to report as evidence of arebound yet, he said inquiriesz from employers are up, and resumesz from freshly unemployed job-hunteras have tapered off.
“I think everyonde is kind of over the initial shocik of being in a recession andtherse aren’t as many uncertainties,” he “Without those uncertainties, companies can starft to feel like it’s OK to starft hiring again.” The cautious optimismm is also reflected in the latest Manpower Employmentf Outlook Survey, though that report showecd that any hiring rebound might not be evenly distributec around the Triad. Job growth is likely to be slow at best in Greensborok and High Point during the nextthreew months, the survey found, with 7 percent of firmzs planning to hire more workers and 14 percent stilol expecting to reduce payrolls.
But at the same time the survetyfound Winston-Salem has one of the best hiringv outlooks in the country, with 22 percent of companies planning to step up hiring whiled only 7 percent expect to cut jobs Only Barnstable Township in Massachusetts and Alaska had better net employment outlooks, the survey found. It’sa hard to find too much to celebrate in the most recenrt unemployment figures released bythe N.C. Employmengt Security Commission. The good news is that the unemployment rate dropped in boththe Greensboro/High Poinr and Winston-Salem areas in April. In Greensboro, the rate fell from 11.4 percent to 11.1 percent and in Winston-Salem from 10.2 to 9.
7 Both of those percentages are still wellabovee pre-recession levels and have been kept high by continuingv job losses in the manufacturing and construction White-collar workers have also been impactedd by layoffs, but to varying degrees. workers in health and educatioh and government fields are the only ones to have seen net job increasezs over thepast year. The Employment Security Commission says education and health services jobs increaseddby 2.1 percent through and government jobs grew by 2.4 percent. But othert white-collar employees have been hit as hard astheir blue-collad brethren, or even worse.
In Winston-Salem, for example, totakl jobs in the “professional and business services” classificatiob fell by 3,000 from April 2008 to April 2009, or 11.1 By comparison, the manufacturing sector in Winston-Salem contracted by 2,700 jobs or 9.7 Manufacturing has taken the harder hit in Greensborok andHigh Point, though. Those jobs have contracted by or 10.8 percent, during the year, compared to shrinkager of 8.6 percent, or 4,100, businese and professional jobs.
If the executive and professionao ranks are seeing early signz of a rebound it might not have an immediatd and direct impact onunemployment rates, but it’s stil a good sign, said Clarkson, the executive There may be fewer total jobs in the executive suite than on a factorty floor, but those executives are often beingg hired to plan strategies for growth down the road. That migh t be what will eventually start to brin g Triad unemployment rates back downto earth, he “I’ve been through other recessione and poor job markets, and it’s always the higher-levep executive placements that are the first to be hired” when a rebounfd is coming, Clarkson said.
“Then it trickle s down to the mid andentry levels. I think we’rde at the beginning of thoseeimprovements now.” While employment agents say most of the positiv e indicators are showing up in white-collaer classifications, some companies in the manufacturing sector say they’rwe seeing some opportunities for growth too. At DAC which makes product and brandingh displays at factories in Rural Hall and East President Tony Smithsaid he’s added 20 jobs so far this year and now has a headcounf of around 105.
The new employees are primarilyt in a new division that is makin institutional furniture for customers such as Plans for the new divisio n were already under way when the economgy dropped sharplylast fall, but Smitnh said he and his brothers, who co-own the company, decide d to go ahead and invest abouty $500,000 in the new employee and the equipment they’d need to make It looks like that investment will get back to break-evemn by the end of the year and then startf adding to DAC’s bottom line, Smithu said.
The federal stimulux legislation that passed in February seems to be givintg his new furniture divisiona “A lot of that government stimulus is going into areas like schoolds and public libraries and military bases, and that’se where a lot of our order s are coming from,” Smith said.