GOTTA GET TO 3 MILLION:

Employers still cautious, but expect to add jobs (XIAO ZHANG, September 14, 2004, Chicago Sun-Times)

More American companies expect to add jobs in the fourth quarter than a year ago, even as they remain cautious about hiring, a new survey said.

Manufacturing, retail and service businesses in particular expressed strong optimism about hiring from October through December, according to the quarterly survey of 16,000 U.S. employers prepared for release today by Manpower Inc.

Overall, 28 percent of all businesses surveyed said they plan to add staff in the fourth quarter, compared with 7 percent that expect to reduce their payrolls, the survey said. Sixty percent of employers said they plan no changes in their staffing levels, and 5 percent said they were not sure.

''We are seeing that companies continue to have an appetite to hire people,'' said Jeff Joerres, chairman and chief executive officer of Manpower, a global staffing company based in the Milwaukee suburb of Glendale.

The fourth-quarter outlook is a considerable improvement from a year ago, when the net percentage of companies anticipating increased hiring was half of that in the current survey.