Companies Cut Back On Hiring, Poll Finds; 7 Percent Expect To Lay Off Workers
Howard County companies, along with those in the rest of the Baltimore region, have sharply curtailed hiring plans for the third quarter because of the shaky economy, according to a new employment survey.</br></br>Fewer employers in the Baltimore region, including the City of Baltimore, portions of Baltimore County and Howard, expect to hire more workers during the next three months, compared with the second quarter, Manpower Inc., a Milwaukee staffing company that tracks hiring trends, reported Tuesday.</br></br>From July to September, 16 percent of companies interviewed, including 23 in Howard, said they plan to hire more employees, down from 40 percent the previous quarter. Seven percent expect to lay off workers, and 66 percent do not expect to change their staffing. Eleven percent said they are unsure of their hiring plans.</br></br>Deborah Provencher, Manpower's Howard County branch manager in Columbia, said that although the county has many technical and health care companies, such as Magellan Health Services in Columbia Gateway, many do not plan to expand their staffs.</br></br>"There's a lot of technical companies located off Gateway Drive, [but] most of them are being conservative in hiring, if they're hiring at all," Provencher said. "My sense from them is that they're being extremely cautious."