Q1 2015 Shows Healthy Job Market for Maine. 

ManpowerGroup (NYSE: MAN), the world’s workforce expert, recently released the first quarterly, employment outlook survey of 2015. And, the results are positive for the Northeast, including Maine. This report is the outcome of surveying 18,000 US employers across 13 industry sectors, where we asked the question, “How do you anticipate total employment at your location to change in the three months to the end of March 2015 as compared to the current quarter?”

All 13 sectors indicated a positive outlook over Q4 2014, with 17% of employers nationally indicating plans to hire in Q1. Leisure & Hospitality and Wholesale & Retail Trade are leading the growth on the national level.

In Maine, 21 percent of all the companies interviewed plan to hire more employees, while 8 percent expect to reduce their payrolls. Another 69 percent expect to maintain their current staffing levels and 2 percent are not certain of their hiring plans. This yields a Net Employment Outlook* of 13%.

“For the first three months of the new year, employers are significantly more optimistic about staffing plans compared to Q4 when the Net Employment Outlook as -2%,” said April Clark, President, Manpower Maine “Compared to the start of 2014 when the Net Employment Outlook was 9%, the employment  forecast is brighter.”

Summary of Results for Maine

	Increase Staff	Decrease Staff	Maintain Staff	Don’t Know	Net Employment Outlook
Q1 2015	21%	8%	69%	2%	13%
Q4 2014	16%	18%	65%	1%	-2%
Q1 2014	17%	8%	71%	4%	9%

*The Net Employment Outlook is derived by taking the percentage of employers anticipating an increase in hiring activity and subtracting from this the percentage of employers expecting a decrease in hiring activity.

For the coming quarter, Maine job prospects appear best in Durable Goods Manufacturing, Transportation & Utilities, Wholesale & Retail Trade, Information, Financial Activities, Professional & Business Services and Education & Health Services. Employers in Construction, Nondurable Goods Manufacturing and Government plan to reduce staffing levels.

“This is all good news for our state, and in-line with what we are seeing across the Manpower offices here in Maine.” states Clark “While we are noticing an uptick in requests for employees this year – the hard truth is we are still dealing with a talent shortage, which is a challenge for Maine employers.”

Clark continued, “In addition to the Quarterly Employment Outlook Survey that Manpower produces we also collect data relating to the talent shortage. Many studies currently available are pointing to the idea that the Talent Shortage will continue to worsen in 2015. We look forward to sharing Manpower’s insights on this topic when we release our annual report later in the 2nd Quarter.”

You can read the complete survey results by clicking here.

The next Manpower Employment Outlook Survey will be released on March 10, 2015, and will report hiring expectations for Q2 2015.

About the Survey

The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey is conducted quarterly to measure employers’ intentions to increase or decrease the number of employees in their workforces during the next quarter. The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey’s United States results are based on interviews with 18,000 employers located in the 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, which includes the largest 100 Metropolitan Statistical Areas based on number of business establishments. The mix of industries within the survey follows the North American Industry Classification System Supersectors and is structured to be representative of the U.S. Economy.