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The survey reports a net employment outlook of 13% for the Houston area in the last three months of the year. Twenty percent of local companies interviewed plan to hire more workers in the fourth quarter, while 7% plan to cut staff. Virtually all those remaining expect to maintain their current workforce levels.
Ron Griffin, regional vice president with Manpower, says this will mark a slowdown in hiring from the summer.
“It’s actually a much weaker trend as opposed to Quarter 3, which we had a net employment outlook of 24%. The good news is, it is still two percentage points over the national trend and about four percentage points over this time last year.”
Griffin says employers traditionally slow down hiring towards the end of the year. He says employer uncertainty heading into the November elections is likely adding to that seasonal adjustment.
