Job demand & hiring trends for local companies in the 4th Quarter
&  Special Report: 20 Years Of Working Projections

Times have changed, we’ve gone from thermo-faxes to Tweets in the last 20 years, but work still requires time, effort and expertise just as it did in 1992. That’s when the Pacific Staffing Sacramento Employment Trends Survey began polling the area’s top employers directly each quarter on hiring, job skills, industry activity and our economic outlook. Additionally, from that first October to the latest, the Survey has probed important employer, worker and workplace issues like healthcare, retirement, job safety, use of technology and shared these findings with regional employers and those looking to work.

Underwritten by Sacramento-based locally owned Pacific Staffing, the Employment Trends Survey is a community relations project helping employers learn more about their own market and those seeking to upgrade or land a job know what is marketable with leading companies.  Created and conducted by Rick Reed Public Relations, Inc., the Survey gives us a look ‘over the horizon’ at what jobs are open, what skills are in demand and what our immediate economic future will bring.

In the Fourth Quarter, hiring for expansion of workforces has slipped slightly to forty percent (40%) of demand from the previous quarter, while hiring motivated by attrition among the top companies surveyed has risen from the last quarter to forty-three percent (43%) of demand. Employers are not growing their workforces at quite the same rate, but slightly more are opting to backfill existing positions within current staffing levels thru year’s end. Despite this small reduction in the Fourth Quarter, Pacific Staffing has learned that a significant majority, sixty-two percent (62%) of those surveyed across the region will be hiring.  Thirty-eight percent (38%) say they will not hire in October, November and December.

Seasonal employment demand was cited by thirteen percent (13%) of companies surveyed directly by phone between August 26th and September 19th as the reason they were taking applications in the next three months. Five percent (5%) say they will reduce workforces in Q4. Layoffs during this same period last year occurred at twice the rate.

Skills Demand?

With seasonal recreation and holidays ahead Sacramento regional companies anticipate demand for sales and customer service skills in the next three months, while top companies are also seeking technical, manufacturing, warehouse and shipping experience.  A number of construction, property development and home product companies also note a shortage of skilled construction trades and industry-specific technical skills.

Sacramento Regional Top Companies Polled By Industry:  

•  41% Service
• 31% Manufacturers
• 16% Construction
• 12% are Retail

The results of this report were also featured in the Sacramento Bee.

================ Next Quarterly Projections: January 2013 =================

Media contact: Rick Reed 916-704-0080