Some hope on the jobs front
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1AM SORRY that our recent survey of employment prospects should have caused the consternation it appears to have {CM, July 11)
I believe that there may have been some misunderstanding of what the survey was saying. Each quarter, Manpower asks a wide cross-section of UK business whether, for the forthcoming quarter, they expect staffing levels to increase/decrease/remain the same.
Obviously in an industry as large and varied as transport, there is always going to be change with some companies reducing numbers and some hiring in both good and bad times. Six months ago, 29 per cent of the transport sector told us they expected to cut; three months ago 28 per cent said "decrease". This time only 15 per cent said this which meant that for the first time in a very long while, with the increases figure at 13 per cent, the industry approached a balanced position.
This clearly is a long way from real recovery; however, it is a genuine glimmer of hope that the headlong downward trend, which our survey had previously reflected, may at least be coming to the bottom.
We wish to be neither prophets of doom nor spread false optimism; we offer only a guideline on what the general expectation in industry is at a given point in time.
TERRY EMERY Marketing services manager Manpower Slough