Hiring in Toledo area expected to be poor in 4th quarter

9/9/2008

As Toledo wrestles with 10 percent unemployment and northwest Ohio counties battle the highest jobless rates in years, hiring in metro Toledo is expected to be poor.

A new survey from Manpower Inc. shows 27 percent of companies anticipate hiring in October through December, but 20 percent plan to cut staff. That's worse than the firm's survey a year ago, which found 37 percent would add staff and 3 percent would cut.

Nationally, Manpower found 22 percent of firms expect to hire and 13 percent expect to reduce staff in the last quarter of the year. It polls 22,000 firms.

The relatively high number of companies expecting to reduce staff in metro Toledo matches Manpower forecasts for the first three months of the year. For the end of the year, retail and wholesale trade jobs offer the best hiring prospects, the survey taker said.

Elsewhere in northwest Ohio, Manpower found in Defiance, 3 percent of firms expect to hire and 27 percent to reduce staff for October through December; in Findlay, 20 percent anticipate hiring and 7 percent reducing payroll; in Lima, 17 percent plan to add staff and 10 percent to cut staff.