Poll sees hirings rise here

Chattanooga's job market is projected to heat up along with springtime temperatures this year, although most employers are still cool to making major staff additions until the recovery takes stronger root.

A survey of area employers by the nation's biggest staffing company, Manpower Inc., suggests local employers planning to hire workers this spring are more than twice as numerous as those that plan to chop staff.

The Manpower survey of area employers found that 22 percent expect to add staff in the second quarter, compared with 10 percent who said they expect to cut their staffs this spring. Most companies said they expect to keep their staffing levels stable.

"Employers are much more optimistic about hiring activity as compared with one year ago" when 3 percent more employers expected to cut staff than to add workers, said Mark Campbell, owner of the Chattanooga Manpower franchise. "We're getting more clerical orders and we're beginning to see more activity even in hard-hit areas like Dalton's carpet industry. I'm even in the process of hiring another employee myself to help process more orders."

Local employers are more optimistic than the national jobs outlook, according to Manpower.

Nationwide, 73 percent of employers anticipated no change in hiring from April through June, the same as in the first quarter and the highest since Manpower records began in 1972.

For the U.S., 16 percent of respondents said they anticipate expanding payrolls in the second quarter, while 8 percent projected a decline in the next three months.

"We're looking at a stable labor market, pointed in the right direction," said Jeffrey Joerres, chief executive officer of Milwaukee-based Manpower.

The labor market appears to be stabilizing as the nation emerges from the worst recession since the 1930s. February's unemployment was unchanged at 9.7 percent.

Nonetheless, the University of Tennessee's Center for Business and Economic Research projects that Tennessee's jobless rate will still average more than 10 percent for all of 2010.

"Chattanooga is better positioned than most cities right now with a lot of good things happening in our community," said Tom Edd Wilson, president of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce. "I think there is a little more enthusiasm among employers today and a little more feeling that we have reached the bottom and we're on our way back. Nobody is expecting a banner year, but there is a better feeling out there."