ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, February 24, 1996 TAG: 9602260025
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
Forecasts of the strength of the Roanoke-area job market this spring run the gamut from so-so to weakened to good.
Manpower Inc., a temporary help agency, predicted 84 percent of area companies surveyed will keep their work forces stable. Another 13 percent will hire new workers, while 3 percent will announce layoffs, Manpower said.
A year ago, 23 percent of employers surveyed predicted they would hire more employees, 7 percent predicted layoffs, and 70 percent predicted no change, Manpower said in a report released Friday.
The Milwaukee company gathers employment projections every three months from 15,000 employers nationwide for its Employment Outlook Surveys and provides results for local areas. The company declines to say how many local companies are interviewed.
Doug Gaston, owner of the year-old Express Personnel Services office in Roanoke, predicted, however, that the percentage of companies announcing layoffs will be greater than Manpower expects. He didn't take a survey, but his instincts give him a bleaker outlook, he said.
"We have had a number of places severely cut back through this bad weather. Whether they are going to survive to spring, that's a question that has yet to be answered," said Gaston, who places people in office, clerical, technical and laborer jobs with the intention that they will be hired permanently.
Gaston said one client firm plans to move out of the area, while others have had weather-related shipping difficulties.
A third outlook, even more optimistic than Manpower's, came from Jim Coyle, who directs the Salem and Blacksburg offices of Norell Services.
"I haven't heard any negative," Coyle said. "If I listen to the national news, I expect a slowdown. If I listen to my gut, I expected at least as good a performance as last year."
Coyle declined to reveal how many more people his offices have placed in office, clerical, industrial and technical jobs so far this year compared with the same period last year. It amounted to a "high single digit" increase, he said.
LENGTH: Short : 44 linesby CNB