Employers worldwide have reported significant declines in recruitment plans for Quarter 3, as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. ManpowerGroup’s latest study reveals weaker hiring intentions in all 43 countries compared to a year ago, and a dip to a 20 year low in 27 markets, reflecting the magnitude of the pandemic’s impact.
ManpowerGroup’s Employment Outlook Survey, carried out in April 2020, asks 38,000 employers across 43 countries whether they intend to hire additional workers or reduce the size of their workforce in the coming quarter.
CAUTIOUS OPTIMISM
According to the report, employers are “cautiously optimistic” about a return to pre-pandemic levels. When asked when they expect hiring to return to pre-COVID-19 levels, 54% said they expect it to return by April 2021.
Commenting on the results, ManpowerGroup Chairman and CEO Jonas Prising stated: “These results show the impact the health crisis has had on hiring plans as COVID-19 moved in waves across the globe. The significant declines across many countries reflect the unprecedented speed and magnitude of shutdown, which resulted in an almost total activity freeze across many industries. Typically, structural labour market changes take months if not years to impact.
“We believe this crisis will accelerate transformation that we have been tracking and predicting for some time. Employers will continue to require increasingly specific technical and soft skills, digitisation will accelerate, and individuals will demand a way of working that is closer to what they have wanted all along – more inclusive, more flexible and more wellbeing-oriented than we could ever have imagined.”
GLOBAL HIRING PLANS BY REGION
EMEA
In the EMEA region, hiring plans are expected to decline “quarter-over-quarter in all 26 countries” in Quarter 3, according to the study. UK employers report the weakest hiring prospects, with hiring plans weakening considerably (declining by 17 percentage points). Employers in France also report a weakest outlook. The most significant declines are reported by employers in the restaurant and hotels sector and in wholesale and retail trade, declining by 66 and 27 percentage points, respectively.
In Italy, employers report the weakest recruitment intentions in six years (-15%) driven by deep declines in the restaurant and hotels sector, and the finance and business services sector. Employers in Germany report weaker quarter-over-quarter hiring intentions across all seven sectors, with the outlook in finance and business services declining by 17 percentage points to an 11 year low.
AMERICAS
In the Americas region, this quarter marks a record low outlook for nine of the 10 Americas countries surveyed in almost 20 years, excluding the US. In the US, employers expect very modest hiring with hiring plans declining by 16 percentage points, compared to the previous quarter and the weakest since 2009. One of the most significant declines is reported in leisure and hospitality with employers reporting the weakest outlook in more than 10 years. Employers in Mexico report the weakest hiring prospects since the survey began 18 years ago, the most significant declines are reported by employers in commerce, construction, services and transport and communication. In Argentina hiring plans weaken quarter-over-quarter in all nine industry sectors with employers in finance, insurance and real estate, manufacturing and transportation and utilities reporting their weakest outlooks in 13 years.
ASIA PACIFIC
In the Asia Pacific region, hiring plans of employers in Japan and India rank the strongest globally, while Singapore has the weakest employment outlook worldwide. In both the manufacturing sector (-21%) and the services sector (-35%), employers anticipate a considerable decline in hiring plans. Hiring intentions are the weakest in 17 years in Australia (-12%), in finance, insurance and real estate (-21%) and wholesale and retail trade (-19%). The employment outlook in India has hit a 17 year low, with employers in manufacturing, services and wholesale and retail trade reporting their weakest forecasts since 2005.
Click here to view complete results for the ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey.
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