Employers are becoming increasingly optimistic about hiring new workers

FEARS of a “jobless recovery” in the West have abounded ever since the world economy returned from the abyss last year. For some, the latest quarterly survey from Manpower, a global employment-services company, brings timely good news. Of the 36 countries included in Manpower’s survey, employers in 30 of them are increasingly bullish about their hiring plans for the next three months compared with the third quarter of 2009. Only in five countries, all of them in debt-laden Europe, are employers expecting negative hiring activity over the next quarter. This compares favourably, however, to the seven European countries with a negative outlook just three months ago. The survey suggests that the BICs (Brazil, India and China) bounce will continue. The three countries, along with Taiwan, report the most positive hiring plans in the survey, with China reporting its strongest hiring plans since the survey began there in 2005.

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