HIRING AND COMPENSATION IN Q1

HIRING
Twenty percent of employers say they increased their headcount in the last three months. Thirteen prevent reduced headcount while 66 percent reported no change and 1 percent were undecided.

Employers are expected similar results for the upcoming quarter. Twenty prevent of employers plan to add employees in Q1 2010. Nine Percent will decrease headcount while 66 percent anticipate no change and 6 percent are undecided.

COMPENSATION
With a large number of annual salary increases taking place in the first quarter, 45 percent of employers expect to raise compensation levels in the next three months. Thirteen percent say the average raise amount will be 4-10 percent, while 1 percent anticipate an average raise of 11 percent or more.

HIRING IN 2010

HIRING BY INDUSTRY
Comparing selected industries, hiring is expected to increase in information technology, manufacturing, financial services professional and business services, and sales in the coming year. Thirty-two percent of IT, 27 percent of manufacturing, and 23 percent of financial service employers plan to add full-time permanent employees in 2009, followed by 22 percent of employers in professional and business services and 21 percent in sales. Health care employers are also planning to expand staffs at 21 percent followed by 18 percent of transportation employers and 15 percent of retail

HIRING BY JOB TITLE
When asked what areas employers plan to hire for in 2010, one-third pointed to technology followed by 28 percent in customer service. Nearly one-quarter (23 percent) plan to add sales people, 18 percent will add in research/ development, 15 percent in accounting/finance and 14 percent in marketing.

COMPENSATION
Even as companies continue to watch their spending, they still plan slight increases to salaries in the coming year. Fifty-seven percent of employers report their companies will increase salaries for existing employees in 2010, down from 65 percent in 2009. Thirty-six percent expect to raise salaries of existing employees by 3 percent or more, while 11 percent anticipate increases of 5 percent or more.

Twenty-nine of employers plan to increase salaries on initial offers to new employees, down from 33 percent in 2009. Nearly one-in-five (18 percent) employers will raise salaries on initial offers by 3 percent or more while 7 percent anticipate increases of 5 percent or more.

DYK? Application of 75-Mile Rule to Staffing Firms

Under the regulations, an employee is not eligible for leave unless the employer employs 50 or more employees within 75 miles of the employee's work site. In the case of temporary employees, the rules specifiy that the work site is the temporary staffing office from which employees are assigned, not the client's place of business. Thus, all employees assigned from a temporary staffing office- even if a client work site is more than 75 miles from the office- are included in the head count for the purpose of determining the eligibility of both temporary and full-time staff employees. To avoid undue hardship to small tempory staffing offices, the staffing industry had urged that staffing firms be allowed to exclude their temporary employees in determining the eligibility of their full-time staffs. DOL declined to adopt such a two-tiered counting test. In meetings with industry representiatives, DOL officials said that there was no practical way to apply such a test only to staffing firms because other businesses also assign employees from central offices to work at remote client locations and that it would create significant administrative problems.

PRIDESTAFF WINS ASA AWARD - 2009

PrideStaff Wins ASA Advertising Award

We are pleased to share that PrideStaff has received a 2009 ASA Staffing VOICE Award from the American Staffing Association. The VOICE awards are an annual competition for advertising. PrideStaff's award was in the "Company Newsletter" category for our "Industrial Insights" campaign. The award received was an "AWARD OF EXCELLENCE" which is the highest award you can receive (equivalent to an A+). PrideStaff was the only company to achieve this designation in the "Company Newsletter" category. Additionally, the award is in the National Staffing Firm Class. In the National category, PrideStaff was included in the group with the nationals like Manpower, Adecco, Ranstad, Kelly and anyone else with over 20 locations. PrideStaff's winning entries will be displayed in the expo hall during Staffing World 2009, Oct. 20–23 in Orlando. Convention and expo attendees will see our successful communications efforts and will be guided through the display with a descriptive listing that will be featured in the convention notebook. Also, look for PrideStaff's name in the winners’ announcement, which will be published in an upcoming issue of Staffing Week newsletter. Read more about the competition and the judges in the November–December 2009 issue of Staffing Success magazine.