Hiring Intentions for Third Quarter Hit 20-Year Low in Many Countries Though Employers Are Cautiously Optimistic About the Speed of Return
Employers globally report significant declines in hiring intentions for Q3, reflecting the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on health, the economy and employment across the world. ManpowerGroup’s Employment Outlook Survey asks 38,000 employers across 43 countries whether they intend to hire additional workers or reduce the size of their workforce in the coming quarter. The report reveals weaker hiring intentions in all 43 countries compared with this time one year ago, and a dip to a 20 year low in 27 markets, reflecting the magnitude of the pandemic’s impact. The survey is the most comprehensive, forward-looking employment survey of its kind, used globally as a key economic indicator and the research was conducted in April 2020.
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“These results show the impact the health crisis has had on hiring plans as COVID-19 moved in waves across the globe,” said Jonas Prising, ManpowerGroup Chairman & CEO. “The significant declines across many countries reflect the unprecedented speed and magnitude of shutdown, which resulted in an almost total activity freeze across many industries. Typically, structural labor market changes take months if not years to impact. We believe this crisis will accelerate transformation that we have been tracking and predicting for some time. Employers will continue to require increasingly specific technical and soft skills, digitization will accelerate, and individuals will demand a way of working that is closer to what they have wanted all along – more inclusive, more flexible and more wellbeing-oriented than we could ever have imagined.”
Employers were also asked when they expect hiring to return to pre-COVID-19 levels, with results revealing cautious optimism, and 54% predicting a return by April 2021:
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