Well over half the employers in St. John’s say they won’t be doing any hiring in the first quarter of 2018, based on a Manpower Group employment outlook survey released this week.
Sixty-seven per cent are standing pat, 23 per cent anticipate cutbacks in the January to March quarter, meaning just 10 per cent plan on doing any hiring.
“With seasonal variations removed from the data, St. John’s’ first quarter Net Employment Outlook of -10 per cent is a 14 percentage point decrease when compared to the previous quarterly Outlook,” Mindy Stoltz of Manpower’s St. John’s office stated in a release. “It is also a decrease of 14 percentage points compared with the Outlook reported during the same time last year, indicating a weak hiring pace for the upcoming months.”