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Labor Day brings cautious hiring environment

Posted on September 8th, 2011 Read time: 1 minutes

According to a recent government report, 4,700 temporary worker jobs were added in August, while the percentage of temp workers in the overall labor force rose slightly to 1.7 percent, Reuters reports.

Fox News points out that larger companies are typically the ones to be hiring temps. The majority of job growth has been seen in a 2 percent bubble of bigger corporations – while the remaining 98 percent of companies with less than 1,000 employees continue to hold steady until the economic climate is more trustworthy.

"Companies have the ability to make very fast moves in decreasing or increasing hiring, and right now they're in pause mode," said Jeff Joerres of a Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based staffing agency, as quoted by Reuters.

One of the primary fears companies have is the possibility of a double-dip recession. Also, the candidates available for work don't always match up to the sectors that are hiring. Fox News adds that localized unemployment in IT, healthcare, finance and engineering is below 4 percent – a far cry from the nation's 9.1 percent average. However, the number of skilled workers available with applicable skills is lacking.  

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