Survey: Employment Outlook Positive for 2007

According to CLO magazine, the majority of executives and managers expect an increase in the overall number of employees in their organization over the next 12 months, based on the worldwide survey of 203 senior executives and managers conducted by NFI Research.

More than half (57 percent) of senior executives and managers say the overall number of employees in their organization will increase over the next 12 months.

Fifty-one percent of executives and managers said the number of employees in their organization will increase somewhat, while 6 percent said it will increase significantly.

“Many businesses will have to staff up to handle the increase in business, since managers and workers are about at their limit of how much they can do,” said Chuck Martin, NFI Research CEO.

Almost a third of executives and managers said the number of employees in their organization will stay the same, while 12 percent said it will decrease somewhat, and 1 percent said it will decrease significantly.

The percentage of those seeing an increase in the number of employees in their organization is about the same as in the same survey NFI Research conducted a year ago.

Almost half of executives and managers said business increase will be the leading reason for the change in number of employees in their organization.

The other leading reasons for the change in number of employees are expansion (26 percent), business stability (23 percent), industry conditions (21 percent) and current economic conditions (21 percent).

There was not a significant difference between of viewpoints of senior executives and managers.

By company size, however, three-fifths of executives and managers in small and midsized organizations said the number of employees in their organization will increase over the next 12 months compared with only two-fifths in large organizations.