The upcoming three months will be a prime time to look for — and find — a new job in Iowa, according to the latest employment outlook survey from Manpower Group.
Kathy Joblinske, Manpower’s executive vice president for Iowa, says the national outlook for third quarter is very good and Iowa’s outlook is even better. “Among the employers that were surveyed, 31% plan to hire more employees July through September of this year,” Joblinske says. “That number is offset by 3% that plan to reduce the payroll and 64% of employers are expecting to maintain current staff levels.”
Iowa’s net employment outlook for the approaching quarter is 28-percent, ahead of the national outlook of 21-percent and well ahead of Iowa’s outlook last quarter of 16-percent. Hiring prospects are very promising in most industries, Joblinske says, and a few are far above the rest.
“When we look at this time of year, construction is expected to be up and, sure enough, that is one of the top industries that are anticipated for growth,” Joblinske says, “as well as durable goods manufacturing, non-durable goods manufacturing and then transportation and utilities.” Only the information technology category looks to be falling, slightly.
“They are forecasting some decreases in information, although there’s still a lot of IT jobs available,” Joblinske says. “There’s a lot of job opportunity out there and there are more jobs available than there are job seekers at this point.” There are double-digit outlooks in all 50 states for the quarter ahead, and Joblinske says it’s the strongest outlook in 13 years.