USA Today (01/11/12) Davidson, Paul; Hansen, Barbara

The job outlook has brightened the past two months as higher consumer spending, improved business confidence, and a stock market rally have somewhat eased concerns about further shocks from Europe’s financial turmoil. Economists recently surveyed by the Associated Press expect employers to add 2.1 million jobs in 2012, an average of 175,000 a month. While the highest monthly pace in years, it would still fall short of the 250,000 to 300,000 needed to cut unemployment quickly. “It’s not going to be a breakout year,” says Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics.

Moody’s predicts that three categories—professional and business services, education and health care, and leisure and hospitality—will lead job gains, collectively producing more than 1 million. The energy sector will also continue to hire. Sun Belt states hammered by the recession—Florida, Arizona, Georgia, and Nevada—will rebound some, while Rust Belt manufacturing states such as Illinois, Ohio, and Indiana will generate jobs more slowly.

A survey of 18,000 employers released last month by staffing firm ManpowerGroup found employers’ hiring outlook for the first quarter was at its highest since 2008. At the same time, the level of employers unsure of their hiring plans was the most since 2005. Many large companies, in turn, are holding off on permanent hiring and relying heavily on contractors and temporary workers to complete projects, says Janette Marx, senior vice president of staffing company Adecco.

MSNBC (01/10/12) Schoen, John

Even as hiring picked up in November, the number of job openings declined, according to the U.S. Department of Labor’s monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey. Employers filled about 4.15 million jobs in November, an increase but still badly lagging the pace in the three years before the recession hit, when employers were signing up more than five million new hires each month. Meanwhile, although hiring picked up in November, job openings shrank by 63,000, to 3.2 million.

With 13.3 million people unemployed in November, there were about 4.2 job seekers for every job opening, down a notch from the revised October ratio of 4.3-to-1. That is approximately triple the ratio seen before the recession hit in December 2007 but down from a peak of 6.9-to-1 in the summer of 2009. The drop in job openings was biggest for professional and business services (down 59,000) and government (down 18,000). Openings were slightly higher in construction (up 3,000), trade/transportation/utilities (4,000), education/health services (13,000), and leisure/hospitality (32,000).

JD Journal (01/11/12)

Legal industry observers expect law firms to increase their lateral hiring in 2012 in an effort to expand their existing services. Firms are eager to hire lawyers who will bring new clients to the firm that fall into sectors the firms are looking to develop. The lateral market has “been picking up steam and will continue to do so. There’s a lot of people looking to make moves,” says Christopher Petrini-Poli from consulting firm HBR Consulting LLC.

Altman Weil Inc. released a survey in September that questioned 240 U.S. law firms on their growth strategies. Of the firms that responded to the survey, 91.6% of the law firms said that they were making an effort to hire laterals in 2011. Thomas Clay, an author of the report issued by Altman Weil, says that the increase in lateral hiring is due to the need for lawyers with business experience, not the need to fill jobs that were lost during the recession. “The people who were let go during the recession were mainly young lawyers,” Clay says. “This has nothing to do with filling up those ranks.”

Dow Jones Newswires (01/10/12) Derby, Michael

While the Federal Reserve should do all it can to help the economy recover, what it does next depends on how events play out, says John Williams, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. “It’s vital that the Fed use all the tools at its disposal to achieve its mandated employment and price-stability goals,” Williams states, adding that “the policy actions the Fed takes from here on out will depend on how economic conditions develop.”

Williams is encouraged by improvements in the December jobs report, but says the dip to 8.5% unemployment is not “a game changer.” Tepid growth is the trend and if economic performance were to further weaken in the first quarter “that would make a strong case for doing more” to stimulate the economy, he says.

Wanted Analytics (01/10/12) Lombardi, Abby

With hiring demand for engineers expected to remain strong in 2012, recruiters in that field will face challenges in dealing with a limited talent supply, especially for the most demanded engineering job—industrial engineers. In December, more than 12,900 job ads were posted for industrial engineers by 3,800 companies. Many companies are recruiting for hundreds of openings and recruiters are likely to compete heavily to attract enough talent to fill all their open positions.

In order to source enough candidates and fill open industrial engineer positions, hiring managers and recruiters may want to discuss hiring from areas with more favorable recruiting conditions. Locations currently experiencing the easiest conditions for sourcing industrial engineers include Palm Bay, FL; Houma, LA; Binghamton, NY; Anderson, SC; and Lakeland, FL. If relocating talent is not an option for an organization, recruiters and hiring managers should look at other skills that may be easily translated to the job opening. For example, mechanical engineers are experiencing better recruiting conditions than industrial engineers. Also, many times industrial engineers go by different job titles—such as quality engineer or process engineer—that should also be included in candidate searches.