Mobile 8th in Hiring Outlook

Originally published by the Mobile Press Register

City among national leaders in expected employment growth

Tuesday, September 11, 2007
By GEORGE TALBOTBusiness Reporter

Mobile is poised for one of the strongest hiring booms in America over the next three months, a national survey being released today indicates.

Fifty-three percent of Mobile area employers said they expect to add workers during the fourth quarter of 2007, according to the survey by global staffing firm Manpower Inc. The bullish outlook was the highest in Alabama and ranked eighth nationally.

"Mobile employers seem extremely confident there will be a need for additional employees," said Elizabeth Ratliff, a spokes-woman for Manpower's Mobile office. "Based on the survey, Mobile is leading the state in growth."

The survey is the latest indication that Mobile's economy is on the upswing, and the local optimism stands out at a time when experts are raising the odds of a national recession. The U.S. economy lost jobs for the first time in four years in August, and Manpower found that only 27 percent of 14,000 U.S. companies surveyed expect to add workers from October to December.

The survey doesn't include the Mobile area's brightest prospect, ThyssenKrupp AG. The German steelmaker is clearing land north of Mobile for a $3.7 billion steel mill that is scheduled to begin production in early 2010. The project is expected to create 2,700 permanent jobs and up to 29,000 during construction.

The best local job prospects are in construction, manufacturing and retail services, according to Manpower and other employment contractors.
"If you've got a skill and can pass a drug screen, we can put you to work," said Thomas Damson, president of Long's Human Resource Services in Mobile.

Austal USA is helping lead the local hiring boom. The Mobile shipbuilder is expected to announce as early as this week a major expansion that could add up to 1,000 employees.

That's on top of shipyard expansions at Atlantic Marine, Bender and C&G Boatworks that are expected to add about 100 workers a month for the next year.

Austal on Saturday drew about 650 visitors to a job fair at its shipyard on the east bank of the Mobile River. The company is looking for pipefitters, welders and sheet metal workers, but is willing to hire and train unskilled workers, according to chief executive Bob Browning.

"The opportunities are here," Browning told Richard Smith, a restaurant manager from Jackson, Miss., who drove 200 miles to submit an application.

Mobile's outlook rose sharply from a year ago, when 13 percent of companies said they intended to add employees, according to Manpower.

"The only constraint I see in Mobile is affordable housing -- where will all these workers live?" said Sam Addy, director of the University of Alabama's Center for Business and Economic Research. "Otherwise, it's a very positive picture."

Only 3 percent of those surveyed in Mobile said they expected to reduce payrolls from October to December, compared to 9 percent nationally.

Statewide, the biggest cuts were predicted in Birmingham and Huntsville, where 17 percent said they expected a decline through the end of 2007.

Fifty-five percent of companies surveyed in Alabama said they expected no change in hiring during the fourth quarter. After Mobile, the biggest increases were projected in Florence, Decatur and Montgomery.

The quarterly survey has been conducted since 1962, according to Manpower.