Employers See More Hiring in 2nd Quarter : Survey: Companies in county expect the economy to stabilize, a report says, but they remain far less upbeat than their counterparts nationally about prospects for recovery.

County employers expect the economy to stabilize in the second quarter of 1992 and say they will do more hiring during the period, a newly released survey said.

The county’s employers, however, remain far less upbeat about the April-June period than their counterparts nationally, according to the survey by Manpower Inc., an international employment firm with headquarters in Milwaukee.

And the slight increase in the percentage of firms that expect to increase payrolls in the second quarter does not signal an unexpected revitalization of the county’s moribund employment scene, economists said.

At the Chapman University Center for Economic Research, 1992 county employment is still expected to remain flat, center director Esmael Adibi said.

The hiring increases that occur in some industry segments will probably be offset by layoffs in others, he said.

Eleanor Jordan, a labor market analyst for the state Employment Development Department, has also said she expects employment to remain flat or even decline slightly in the county during 1992.

The local survey by Manpower Inc. found that 13% of the county’s employers intend to add hourly workers in the spring, up from 10% in October who said they planned to add workers in the current January-March period.

That local figure contrasts with 21% of employers nationally who said they plan more hiring in the spring, according to Manpower’s study, conducted by the firm’s regional office in Irvine.

On the plus side locally, just 5% of the county’s employers said they expect their hourly payrolls to shrink in the second quarter. Three months ago, 15% said they anticipated cutting employment during the January-March period.

Sue Foigleman, county regional manager for Manpower, said local responses to the quarterly survey of 15,000 U.S. businesses indicate that hiring will most likely be in the finance, insurance, real estate and business and personal services fields.

Employers in manufacturing, construction and wholesale and retail trades, however, sent mixed signals.

The triple whammy of recession, housing slump and federal defense budget cutbacks has slashed thousands of construction and manufacturing jobs from county payrolls in the last two years.

And in 1991, for the first time in more than two decades, the number of the county’s retail industry jobs shrank, as recession-strapped county residents cut back on discretionary spending.

O.C. Employment

After the weakest first-quarter job outlook in years, Orange County employers’ plans for second-quarter hiring have improved slightly, according to a survey of businesses with hourly payrolls.

But the hiring increases in some industry segments will probably be offset by layoffs in others.

O.C. companies’ plans for the April-June period:

Reducing Increasing Year Payrolls Payrolls 1990 10% 27% 1991 13% 12% 1992 5% 13%

O.C. Employers’ 1992 Hiring Plans

April-June Jan.-March Reducing Payrolls 5% 15% Increasing Payrolls 13% 10%

Source: Manpower Inc.