Salt Lake-area employers expect to hire at a "vigorous pace" during the third quarter of 2007, and hiring expectations in Orem surpass those in Salt Lake City and Ogden, according to a Manpower Employment Outlook Survey released today.

About half of the Salt Lake area's employers surveyed by Milwaukee-based Manpower expect to hire new employees between July and September of this year, a press release containing the results of the survey said. Another 43 percent of Salt Lake employers expect no change, and 7 percent expect to decrease jobs, the release said.

"We're still on top," Susan Smith, vice president/regional director for Manpower in Utah, said about the results for Salt Lake City.

Last quarter the survey showed that 60 percent of surveyed employers in the Salt Lake area expected to hire more employees, placing the city at No. 4 in the nation. With 50 percent of employers surveyed for the third quarter, Smith said hiring is "still very, very strong."

Orem placed fifth in the nation, surpassing Salt Lake City and Ogden with 57 percent of surveyed employers saying they expect to increase employment and none saying they expect to decrease employment.

"They're outpacing us down there," Smith said about the difference between Orem and Salt Lake City. "They're hot down there. They really are."

The employment outlook in Ogden remains strong. Hiring expectations barely differed from Salt Lake City, with 48 percent of Ogden's surveyed employers saying they expect to hire new employees. Three percent said they expect to decrease employment.

For all of Utah, 52 percent of surveyed employers said they expect to hire new employees, significantly surpassing the national rate, which remains at 29 percent, according to a survey of 14,000 U.S. employers.

Three percent of employers in Utah expect to decrease employment. Nationally, 7 percent expect cuts.

In the same quarter last year, a larger 31 percent of employers nationwide predicted they'd increase hiring and a smaller 6 percent expected a decrease.

People looking for jobs in the summer months will have to prove to employers they have the right skills, Manpower CEO Jeff Joerres said.

"There's still demand out there for people," Joerres said. "The demand will only be used in very judicious ways. But they are interested in hiring, and they're going to do it carefully."

The latest survey continues a 14-quarter stretch of fairly strong hiring intentions, in which more than 20 percent of companies surveyed said they plan to add to their staffs.

The country saw a 15-quarter streak of hiring intentions above 20 percent from 1998 to the end of 2001, though that range saw more ups and downs than the current stretch, Joerres said. The 16th quarter — the first of 2002 — saw increased hiring intentions drop to 16 percent from 24 percent in the previous quarter, he said.

Hiring ebbs and flows, he said, so people will be watching in the next quarter to see if the pattern repeats itself.

"Normally you reach an inflection point like this, and you either pull back up or you start to come down," Joerres said. "And in this case, we're still seeing a pretty levelheaded hiring market."

The quarterly survey, which has been conducted since 1962, shows the biggest slowdowns, in a year-by-year comparison, are expected in wholesale and retail trade, finance, insurance and real estate and construction.

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