Survey shows employers will hire more in fourth quarter

Brenda Wade Schmidt

bschmidt@argusleader.com

By some accounts, Sioux Falls is poised to see job growth in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Retail stores are hiring for the holiday season, some employers are more optimistic, and a recent survey shows that the Sioux Falls area ranks fifth in the nation for its employment outlook for the last three months of the year.

A Manpower Employment Outlook Survey shows area employers are expecting to hire at a steady pace during the fourth quarter. About 15 percent of local companies interviewed plan to hire more employees, while 7 percent expect to reduce their payrolls, according to the survey.

That's lower than third quarter expectations in which 19 percent of companies planned to increase staff and 9 percent  planned cuts, said Manpower spokesman Rob Meyer of Sioux Falls.

 Nationally, 12 percent of employers are expected to increase their staffs and 14 percent plan reductions, the survey of 28,000 businesses showed.

Sioux Falls typically has ranked high in the survey, Meyer said. He has seen employment picking up, too, with companies needing both temporary and full-time workers. One client needs a large number of people through December to finish an order but isn't yet hiring permanently, he said.

"They're just a little uncertain yet," he said. But Meyer said the outlook is good. "A lot of people have been not buying things for so long. Now, there's kind of a surge."

Jeff Taylor, senior operations manager at Esurance, said the company is working on hiring 20 or more employees and is having a career fair today.

"Our business is starting to pick up a little bit, and we are in the process of growing our client base," he said. The customer service employees are important so the company can take care of those clients' needs, he said.

 Retail hiring probably will be as strong as last year, too, based on projections at The Empire Mall. Job postings on the mall's Web site have picked up, said Chrissy Spoo, marketing manager. "It hasn't been a tremendous increase, but we have seen a gradual uptick in the number of positions listed."

The mall will have a job fair next week in which stores will look for seasonal help. "The indication we've gotten from our department stores specifically is they're planning on hiring just as many workers this year as last year," Spoo said. "They're not planning for a down season. They're planning to staff fully."

Sioux Falls' diverse economy helps when it comes to maintaining jobs.

"We have more employment here than they do in other parts of the country. So if you have more employment you hope that consumer spending will continue to be good," said Mary Medema, director of work force development for the Sioux Falls Development Foundation.

Manufacturing and commercial construction will take longer than other industries to catch up again, she said. "I'm optimistic, and I think that we continue to have a real meaningful payoff from the diversity that does exist in our market," Medema said.