ECONOMY

Survey Says Hiring Continues but Growth Is Weak: Apparently still skittish about the economy, employers are keeping their hiring plans fairly steady for the third quarter, according to a study by Manpower Inc. The Milwaukee-based temporary employment firm said 25% of the 15,000 U.S. businesses it surveyed plan to hire more people in the July-September period, while 8% plan to cut staff. Another 64% will remain at current levels and 3% are unsure. That is nearly the same as Manpower’s projections for the second quarter, which found 26% planning to hire, 7% planning cutbacks and 65% planning no changes. “We sense a prevailing uncertainty among business enterprises that keeps the lid on traditional post-recession hiring practices,” Manpower President Mitchell S. Fromstein said in a statement. The South and Midwest will continue to be the most active areas of hiring, the survey found. Construction will be the strongest sector of the economy, as it has been in past summers. The projections are part of Manpower’s quarterly survey on employment trends. The survey, which has been conducted for 16 years, is based on telephone interviews with public and private employers in 468 U.S. cities. It found that 37% of construction companies plan to hire during the third quarter, up from 36% in the second quarter, and 7% plan to cut back. Mining is the slowest sector, with 10% of the companies surveyed planning to hire in the quarter and 8% looking to cut back. For the wholesale and retail trades, hiring expectations are higher than at any time in the last two years, with 28% of companies surveyed saying they plan staff increases and 7% saying they would cut back. One-fourth of the services employers said they would hire in the quarter, while 7% plan cuts.