Worker Shortage Is Seen Continuing, Leading Recruiters to Step Up Efforts
The persistent shortage of workers that has been crimping growth plans at many companies won't be ending anytime soon, according to Manpower Inc.'s latest survey of U.S. employers' hiring plans.</br></br>Demand for employees is still growing, and with unemployment at its current extremely low levels, "the traditional labor supply is essentially exhausted," Manpower said.</br></br>Companies pinched for labor may get a modicum of relief from recent legislative changes that eliminated Social Security earning limits; that freed some older workers from restrictions on their ability to work. But recruiting more workers "will continue to challenge employers throughout the country," Manpower said.</br></br>Of the about 16,000 companies that participated in the survey, about 35% said they expect to be recruiting additional workers in the third quarter.</br></br>That's the highest level seen in the 24 years that the survey has been conducted. During the year-earlier quarter, and again in the second quarter of the current year, the figure was an already very strong 32%.