Firms to maintain Utah hiring spree

Utah's economy keeps motoring along, and employers apparently aren't ready to even tap the brakes.

A new study conducted by employment services company Manpower Inc. indicates that 40 percent of surveyed Utah companies plan to add employees to their work forces during the third quarter of July through September. The figure in Salt Lake City is 37 percent.

"The respondents in our survey are still very, very positive," said Manpower's Utah spokesman, Robert Katz. "This is probably the most positive of the surveys that we've seen for a while. They've always been fairly strong, but this one is even a little bit over the national average.

"Utah is third in the country in job creation and job growth, behind Nevada and Arizona, so we're seeing some very strong numbers and some anticipation of hiring going on throughout the third quarter — the same kind of growth that we've seen before."

While employers remain bullish on Utah, they eventually could confront a problem finding workers.

"We're seeing a little bit of that in a lot of the job sectors," Katz said. "Luckily, we're in a state that still produces a lot of workers every year. If we can keep them here in the state and attract them to some jobs that are a little bit better and have them not leave the state, that would be good. Also, we'll probably see some in-migration for a change — people moving here for jobs and the Utah lifestyle."

Among other Utah cities highlighted by Manpower were Ogden, where 47 percent of survey respondents indicated they would add staff during the third quarter, and Orem, where 37 expect a work-force increase. Ogden also had the smallest percentage of companies expecting a decrease: zero.

"That was the strongest of all our results," Katz said of Ogden. "They have lagged behind the last few quarters, but we're finally seeing job creation and job growth there."

Salt Lake's hiring intentions were stronger for the third quarter than in the second quarter, when 30 percent of the companies interviewed intended to add staff and 10 percent planned to reduce headcount.

"Employers are also more positive about hiring than they were a year ago when 27 percent of companies surveyed thought employment increases were likely and 3 percent intended to cut back," Katz said.

All the listed Utah percentages for hiring expectation outpace the national figure of 31 percent, based on a survey of about 16,000 employers across the country. Fifty-seven percent nationwide expect no change, while 6 percent were undecided.