Manpower reporting record drop in hiring plans for the next year

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The almighty permatemp agency, Manpower, keeps track of hiring projections. They are reporting for Q4, 2009 employers' hiring plans are at an all time low. Manpower has been keeping track since 1962.

A net -3% of employers said they'll hire in the fourth quarter, down from -2% in the third quarter, on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the Milwaukee-based firm's survey of more than 28,000 employers. Before this year, the survey's previous low point was a net 1% hiring outlook for the third quarter of 1982.

A year ago, a seasonally adjusted net 9% of firms said they would hire in the fourth quarter. The Manpower survey measures the percentage of firms planning to hire minus those intending layoffs. Manpower doesn't measure the number of jobs. The survey's margin of error is +/- 0.49%.

Reading that? It's negative and the strongest negative in the history of Manpower tracking.

Not a good sign if anyone is expecting the unemployment rate to improve.

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conference board, job growth "flat"

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Yet another projection of "not good news". Conference board:

A gauge of the strength of the U.S. job market fell slightly in August and pointed to a flat employment market for the rest of the year, a research group said on Tuesday.

The Conference Board, a private research group, said its Employment Trends Index inched lower to 88.1 in August from a revised 88.2 in July, originally reported at 88.3.