LINE survey: Manufacturing hiring to maintain its solid pace in April

Although the rate of job growth will fall short of levels reached a year ago, hiring will continue in the manufacturing and service sectors in April, according to the Society for Human Resource Management's (SHRM) Leading Indicators of National Employment (LINE) survey for April 2012.

A net of 43.3 percent of manufacturers will add jobs in April (50.3 percent will hire, 7.0 percent will cut jobs). The sector's hiring index will fall in April on a year-over-year basis by a net of 5.2 points. In the service sector, a net of 20.1 percent of companies will add jobs in April (33.0 percent will conduct hiring, 12.9 percent will trim payrolls), and the service hiring index will fall by 17.5 points compared with a year ago. While the layoff rate in manufacturing will fall in April compared with last year, service-sector companies will cut jobs at more than three times the rate of April 2011.

The LINE results for April 2012 reflect an ongoing trend of overall steady job growth, in accord with recent federal data. February 2012 data from the BLS showed that 31,000 manufacturing jobs were added during the month. Several service industries also posted employment gains for the month, but other segments of that industry suffered losses.

The full report, which also includes data for recruiting difficulty, new-hire compensation, and vacancies, can be found here.