U.S. Employment Statistics Stabilize This Summer, As Recruiting Efforts Pick Up

ManpowerGroup Advocates That Employers and Workers Stay Focused on Skills Development and Alignment

News provided by

Jul 08, 2011, 02:29 ET

MILWAUKEE, July 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- ManpowerGroup (NYSE: MAN), the world leader in innovative workforce solutions, says employers should concentrate on developing the right talent to meet their business needs, as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics today reported that the overall June unemployment rate had changed little at 9.2 percent and 18,000 new jobs were created — evidence that there are still potholes on the elongated road to recovery.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110330/CG73938LOGO-a)

"Today's BLS news is no reason to delay the development of talent that will help companies win in the marketplace," said Jeffrey A. Joerres, ManpowerGroup Chairman and CEO. "Employers need to focus on aligning skills with their business objectives and not use backward-looking monthly numbers as an indicator of hiring trends. The evolution of traditional roles is indeed picking up speed and workers can influence this process by creating and maintaining an employability profile. The recruitment process is increasingly sophisticated and focused on real-time needs that align market demands, employer business and talent development strategies."

The jobless rate rose by 0.1 of a percentage point from 9.1 percent in May and temporary employment showed little change over the month.

"At ManpowerGroup we see stable hiring intentions continuing to persist this summer among U.S. employers," said Jonas Prising, ManpowerGroup's President of the Americas. "Although the unemployment rate remains elevated, at the same time we know employers are continuing to find it difficult to find the best talent for their businesses. This mismatch will increase as employment levels improve and will eventually lead to an employability crisis for firms who want to hire but can't find the right person in the right place."

Of the U.S. employers surveyed in ManpowerGroup's 2011 Talent Shortage Survey, a significant 52 percent report increased difficulty in finding the right talent, up from 14 percent in 2010. This is the highest U.S. percentage reported in the annual survey's six-year history.

ManpowerGroup's new Fresh Perspectives Paper, "'Manufacturing' Talent for the Human Age," makes recommendations for how employers should tackle the scarcity of talent in the face of an abundance of available workers. Today, a holistic workforce strategy accounts for external talent supply factors such as demographic shifts, the rise of emerging markets and rapidly evolving technology as well as internal demand.

At January's World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, ManpowerGroup announced it had identified that the world has entered the Human Age, where access to talent has replaced access to capital as the key competitive differentiator. With skilled individuals in increasingly short supply, businesses, governments and all institutions need to collaboratively work toward developing an adequate talent pipeline to turn today's complexities into their greatest opportunity.

In this new era, the talent pools that organizations are able to access will determine their marketplace success. Their efforts to identify the right talent and to develop these workers with career-long training programs are fundamental to winning today's war for talents.

About ManpowerGroup

ManpowerGroup™ (NYSE: MAN), the world leader in innovative workforce solutions, creates and delivers high-impact solutions that enable our clients to achieve their business goals and enhance their competitiveness. With over 60 years of experience, our $19 billion company creates unique time to value through a comprehensive suite of innovative solutions that help clients win in the Human Age. These solutions cover an entire range of talent-driven needs from recruitment and assessment, training and development, and career management, to outsourcing and workforce consulting. ManpowerGroup maintains the world's largest and industry-leading network of nearly 3,900 offices in over 80 countries and territories, generating a dynamic mix of an unmatched global footprint with valuable insight and local expertise to meet the needs of its 400,000 clients per year, across all industry sectors, small and medium-sized enterprises, local, multinational and global companies. By connecting our deep understanding of human potential to the ambitions of clients, ManpowerGroup helps the organizations and individuals we serve achieve more than they imagined – because their success leads to our success. And by creating these powerful connections, we create power that drives organizations forward, accelerates personal success and builds more sustainable communities. We help power the world of work. The ManpowerGroup suite of solutions is offered through ManpowerGroup™ Solutions, Manpower®, Experis™ and Right Management®. Learn more about how ManpowerGroup can help you win in the Human Age at www.manpowergroup.com.

ManpowerGroup is the most trusted brand in the industry, and the only company in our industry to be named World's Most Ethical by the Ethisphere Institute for our proven commitment to ethical business practices, including an outstanding commitment to ethical leadership, compliance practices and corporate social responsibility. In addition, Fortune magazine named ManpowerGroup the World's Most Admired in our industry, ranking our company best in terms of people management, social responsibility, quality of management and global competitiveness. The Fortune list is the definitive report card on corporate reputations.

In January 2011, at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, ManpowerGroup announced the world has entered the Human Age, where talent has replaced capital as the key competitive differentiator. Learn more about this new age at www.manpowergroup.com/humanage

Follow ManpowerGroup Chairman and CEO Jeff Joerres on Twitter: twitter.com/manpowergroupjj.

SOURCE ManpowerGroup