Survey says: Employers upbeat about local economic conditions

FORT COLLINS ? Northern Colorado employers are feeling more optimistic as 2004 moves into its second quarter, with nearly 40 percent saying they planned to hire more permanent employees in the next six months.
That?s according to a survey of about 430 of the region?s businesses conducted by Employment Solutions, a Fort Collins-based employment service.
?I think, in general, employers are pretty optimistic about the outlook for the economy,? said Rick Wagner, Employment Solutions owner.
?I would say employers are optimistic and are looking for the economy to start expanding and jobs be created,? he said. ?I think it?s a great outlook for ?04.?
The survey was conducted with the assistance of the Northern Colorado Human Resource Association and The Northern Colorado Business Report.
Lana Scherburne, human resource manager for PR Pharmaceuticals in Fort Collins and public relations officer for the 155-member NCHRA, said the association was ?very interested in the results? of the survey.
Scherburne said she was pleasantly surprised by the overall positive tone of the survey?s results. ?I must say I was a little bit surprised. Everybody seemed to be optimistic.?
That optimism extended to her own company, Scherburne said. ?We?re feeling very optimistic this year.?
The online survey went out to more than 4,000 regional employers, Wagner said, with about 430 completed responses. ?Our purpose was to find out what employers see in terms of the economic outlook and new hiring,? he said.
Wagner said he?s presented the results to the NCHRA but he hasn?t yet shared them with local economic development agencies or chamber of commerce or municipal officials.
Wagner said the current survey is a follow-up to one taken in April 2001. While both surveys produced a generally positive outlook, it was for different reasons.
?People at that time were still pretty optimistic about avoiding a recession,? he said. ?What they were also concerned about was the available workforce being in short supply.?
Just a few months later came 9-11 and a deepening recession, with waves of job layoffs creating an available pool of highly skilled employees
Wagner said he?s seeing signs of optimism in his own business, which provides permanent and temporary employees to regional employers.
?We?re seeing a lot of activity in the temp side ? up 30 percent from last year ? and that?s across all industries,? he said. ?And we?re seeing a lot more temp-to-hire positions.?

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