Survey Shows Employers Are Still Cutting Back

More jobs will be lost than gained in Ventura County during this year’s third quarter, according to a survey conducted by the Ventura office of Manpower Inc. And, while the employment outlook is better than it was in the spring quarter, it’s bleaker than a year ago, the study showed.

“Employers are still cutting back, and many people are still out of work,” said Barbara Klein, Manpower’s Ventura manager. One bright spot, she said, is assembly work, in which the temporary services agency has been able to place an increasing number of Ventura County residents in the past several weeks.

Of those employers responding to the study, 10% said they intend to increase their payrolls in July, August and September. This compares with 14% who plan layoffs and 73% who expect no change. The remaining 3% said they are unsure.

In the second quarter, only 3% of the companies queried expected to add to their staffs while 20% predicted cutbacks. In last year’s third quarter, 10% planned increases and 10% expected to trim their payrolls. The remainder were unsure of any staffing changes.

Klein said an unusually large number of the county’s employers refused to respond to the latest survey, which was conducted among 250 companies in early May. “I found this troubling, since it indicated widespread uncertainty about the future,” she said.