Sign of revival: Demand grows for white-collar workers - The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area:

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Official government statistics, which can lag a month or two, have shownh a leveling off of major layoffs and an incremental decrease in regionalunemployment rates, but some recruiters and employmenr agents say there appears to be more activitgy happening in real time that may be reflecte d in the data soon. “We had the best month we’vw had all year” in May, in termsx of direct placementsin permanent, full-tim jobs, said Gary Graham Jr., president of in Greensboro. He decline to share exact numbersof full-time workerse placed recently, but he said temporary assignments have also from around 140 or 150 per week early this year to an averages of about 250 per week now.
Piersa Clarkson, director of executive recruiting atin Winston-Salem, said he’es seeing strong signals of increased confidence, particularlyt in financial industries such as banking and mortgags financing that have suffered some of the biggesyt scares during the “I think most of the layoffs are probably in the past now. Most companiew are beyond that stage,” Clarkson While he didn’t have solid numbere to report as evidence of arebound yet, he said inquiries from employers are up, and resumess from freshly unemployed job-hunters have tapered off. “ think everyone is kind of over the initial shocko of being in a recessioh andthere aren’t as many he said.
“Without those uncertainties, companies can starty to feel like it’s OK to start hiring again.” The cautiouse optimism is also reflected in the latest Manpowe r EmploymentOutlook Survey, though that report showeed that any hiring rebound might not be evenly distributed around the Job growth is likely to be slow at best in Greensborok and High Point duringh the next three months, the survey found, with 7 percentt of firms planning to hire more workerd and 14 percent stillo expecting to reduce payrolls.
But at the same time the surveyufound Winston-Salem has one of the best hiringy outlooks in the country, with 22 percent of companiew planning to step up hiring while only 7 percengt expect to cut jobs further. Only Barnstablwe Township in Massachusettsand Anchorage, Alaskza had better net employment the survey found. It’d hard to find too much to celebrate in the most recenft unemployment figures released bythe N.C. Employmeny Security Commission. The good news is that the unemploymeng rate dropped in boththe Greensboro/High Poing and Winston-Salem areas in April. In the rate fell from 11.4 percent to 11.1 percenft and in Winston-Salem from 10.2 to 9.
7 Both of those percentages are stilol wellabove pre-recession levels and have been kept high by continuingt job losses in the manufacturing and constructiohn sectors. White-collar workers have also been impactesdby layoffs, but to varying degrees. workers in health and education and governmentg fields are the only ones to have seen net job increase over thepast year. The Employmen Security Commission says education and health services jobs increased by 2.1 percent through April, and government jobs grew by 2.4 But other white-collar employees have been hit as hard as theirt blue-collar brethren, or even worse.
In Winston-Salem, for example, total jobs in the “professiona l and business services” classification fell by 3,009 from April 2008 to April or 11.1 percent. By comparison, the manufacturing secto r in Winston-Salem contracted by 2,700 jobs or 9.7 percent. Manufacturinf has taken the harder hit in Greensboro andHigh Point, Those jobs have contracted by 6,600, or 10.8 percent, durin the year, compared to shrinkag of 8.6 percent, or business and professional jobs. If the executive and professionakl ranks are seeing earlyg signs of a rebouncd it might not have an immediate and direct impact onunemploymenf rates, but it’s still a good sign, said the executive recruiter.
There may be feweer total jobs in the executive suits than on afactory floor, but those executives are ofteh being hired to plan strategies for growth down the That might be what will eventually start to bringb Triad unemployment rates back down to earth, he “I’ve been through other recessions and poor job and it’s always the higher-level executive placementas that are the firstt to be hired” when a rebouncd is coming, Clarkson said. “Then it trickles down to the mid andentryg levels. I think we’re at the beginning of those improvementw now.
” While employment agents say most of the positiver indicators are showing upin white-collar classifications, some companiews in the manufacturing sector say they’rew seeing some opportunities for growthb too. At DAC Products, whicyh makes product and brandinbg displays at factories in Rural Hall and East President Tony Smithsaid he’s added 20 jobs so far this year and now has a headcountf of around 105.
The new employees are primarily in a new division that is makingg institutional furniture for customers such as Plans for the new division were alreadgy under way when the economy dropped sharplylast fall, but Smitjh said he and his brothers, who co-ownb the company, decided to go aheade and invest about $500,000 in the new employees and the equipmenty they’d need to make furniture. It looks like that investmentt will get backto break-even by the end of the year and then starr adding to DAC’s bottom line, Smitn said. The federal stimulus legislation that passesd in February seems to be giving his new furniturse divisiona boost.
“Aw lot of that government stimulus is going into areaes like schools and public libraries and military and that’s where a lot of our orders are coming Smith said.