Hiring expectations down again in March

Hiring expectations in the manufacturing and service sectors' will continue to diminish in March as an already anemic labor market will provide fewer opportunities for job seekers, according to the Society for Human Resource Management's (SHRM) Leading Indicators of National Employment (LINE) survey.

March hiring expectations take a precipitous drop from a year ago—down by two-thirds in the manufacturing sector and one-third in the service sector compared with 2008.

Recruiting difficulty fell sharply in February. Fewer employers are actively recruiting, and those who are searching for top-level talent are having little, if any, problems finding it.

Wages and benefits packages have been curbed for new workers. In both the manufacturing and service sectors, new-hire compensation rose at the slowest rate in March in four years.

The LINE Employment Report examines four key areas: employers' hiring expectations, new-hire compensation, difficulty in recruiting top-level talent and job vacancies. It is based on a monthly survey of private-sector human resource professionals at more than 500 manufacturing and 500 service-sector companies. Together, these two sectors employ more than 90 percent of the nation's private-sector workers.

The full report can be found here.<.p>