In the past few weeks, the media has been conveying predictions of a forthcoming economic recession. But these predictions apparently aren't causing much fear among HR professionals, most of whom expect their companies to hire additional staff this year, according to a Compensation.BLR.com poll.
When asked "Does your company plan to grow in size in 2008?," 63 percent responded "Yes, we expect to hire additional staff." Meanwhile, 24 percent responded "No, we expect the size of our workforce to stay the same." Only 14 percent responded "No, we may even cut back on staff this year."
Coinciding with the turning of the calendar to January 2008, predictions of an economic recession began to multiply. On January 10, CNN Money reported that economists from two major Wall Street firms--Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs--have suggested that the recession is in fact already upon us, noting that the unemployment rate jumped from 4.7 percent in November 2007 to 5.0 percent in December, with little job growth.
Whether the majority of the respondents to our poll are overly-optimistic or correct in their assumptions that economic conditions--whatever they may be--won't have an adverse impact on hiring ought to be determined in the coming months.
The Compensation.BLR.com poll included 195 respondents.
