Industry News & Employment Outlook

NATIONAL

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--The deterioration in the labor market continued in July, but a recovery in capital spending may eventually spur job growth, outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas reported Tuesday. The firm counted 85,117 planned job cuts in July, 43% higher than the 59,715 cuts reported in June. Job cuts announced by U.S. corporations from the start of the year through July totaled 715,649, down 12% from the 814,493 reported during the same
seven- month period last year. "If there is significant capital spending to compel to start hiring again" the job market could turn around by the end of the year, said John Challenger, CEO of the firm. "Employers have all the cards," he said. The consumer-products sector posted the highest number of job-cut announcements in July, with 15,665, followed by transportation, with 9,820,
and government and non-profits, with 9,369. The report is an anecdotal, non-statistical tally of job-cut announcements that are reported in major media outlets. The report focuses only on job-cut announcements, not actual layoffs, and it doesn't take into account new hires or internal transfers at companies that have announced layoffs. Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement firm, tracks layoff announcements and releases its Challenger Employment report monthly.

-By Agnes T. Crane, Dow Jones Newswires

REGIONAL

Employers surveyed in the West report a 22% increase in hiring intentions, while 11% estimate a
decrease, producing a Net Employment Outlook of 11%. When seasonal variations are removed from the data, the survey results show that job growth is expected to slow considerably in the West. The steepest decline in hiring activity is expected to occur in the Construction, Services, Wholesale & Retail Trade and Non-Durable Goods Manufacturing sectors in this region, as employers in these sectors are significantly more pessimistic about hiring prospects for third quarter than they have been in a year or more. The Construction sector results for the West are the weakest since 1992. Consistent with the Northeast and Midwest regions, job cutbacks are estimated in the Public Administration and Education sectors. The only bright spots in the Western Employment Outlook are in the Finance, Insurance & Real Estate sector, which is holding steady with the second quarter hiring outlook, and the Mining sector, which is anticipating a slight increase in hiring activity for third quarter but has been very volatile in recent history. Excerpt taken from Manpower‚s 2003 3rd quarter Employment Outlook

LOCAL

San Diego- The use of contingency accounting and finance workers remained flat throughout the second quarter of 2003. Many organizations continued to operate with minimal staff and utilized contingent workers to relieve bottlenecks in their operations or to cover for summer vacations. However, solid increases were realized in the direct placements. Many firms are feeling the effects of questionable hires from the boom years (98-00) and are upgrading their senior level management positions in the accounting and finance areas. Additionally, the Sarbanes Oxley act (section 404) has many publicly traded firms scrambling to become complaint by June of 2004. Thus causing an increased demand for Big 4 candidates with audit experience.