SHRM LINE survey: Payrolls show signs of stabilizing in December compared with a year ago

The U.S. private-sector labor force is expected to add jobs in manufacturing in December, but the hiring pace is still too slow to put a sharp dent in unemployment, according to the Society for Human Resource Management's (SHRM) Leading Indicators of National Employment (LINE) survey for December 2010.

The manufacturing hiring index will improve in December on a year-over-year basis by a net of 23.3 points (a net of 34.0 percent of companies will hire in December, compared with 10.7 percent that added jobs a year ago). The net number of manufacturing companies hiring in December (34.0 percent) is at a four-year high, and the layoff rate (9.7 percent) is at a four-year low.

In the manufacturing sector, a net of 8.3 percent of respondents had more difficulty with recruiting in November. This is a modest net increase of 16.1 points from November 2009, when a net of 7.8 percent reported less difficulty with recruiting.

Considering that millions of people are actively seeking work and many still cannot obtain employment in their industries, the rise in recruiting difficulty may be attributed to new or enhanced skill requirements for newly created high-level jobs.

In the manufacturing sector, a net total of 3.0 percent of respondents reported increasing new-hire compensation in November (4.2 percent increased, 1.2 percent decreased). That is an increase of 1.9 points from November 2009, when a net of 1.1 percent of manufacturers raised wages and benefits packages for new hires.

The full report, which also includes data for the service sector, can be found here.