More Employers Say They Plan to Hire

NEW YORK, Nov. 5, 2003 – The New York Times Job Market Confidence Index increased to 95.9 in October from 91.7 in September. The Confidence Index, which measures job market perceptions of employers and job seekers in the greater New York metropolitan area, is a combination of the Current Conditions and Future Expectations Indices and February 2002 baseline measure.

October's Current Conditions measure of the Index, which looks at respondents' perceptions of the current state of the job market, rose to 102.6 in October from 100.2 in September. The Expectations measure of the Index, which considers respondents' expectations concerning the condition of the job market in six months, rose to 95.9 in October from 90.4 in September. For these results, February 2002 served as the base month with values equal to 100.0.

"When talking about their own businesses, employers seem to be gearing up to start hiring over the next six months," said Carl Haacke, economist for The New York Times Job Market Confidence Index. "Despite their growing optimism about future hiring within their company, employers remain cautious in their outlook for hiring at large in the New York region. Recent GDP growth may begin to improve their sentiment."

Other key findings for October include:

• The percentage of employers who say that there are very few jobs currently available in the New York area rose to 40 percent in October from 32 percent in September.
• In a more encouraging sign, however, 55 percent of employers in October say they expect to hire during the next six months, up from 49 percent in September.
  Low sales volume was cited by 44 percent of employers as an important or very important reason they were not expecting to hire next quarter. This was the most frequently cited factor.
• Job seekers are seeing improvement in the current job market. The percentage of job seekers who say there are very few jobs available dropped to 54 percent in October from 60 percent in September.
• Job seekers believe the future outlook for hiring is improving, with 35 percent saying in October there will be more jobs available in six months, up from 29 percent who said so in September.
• Job seekers say they plan to increase future spending which reflects their optimism of the job market in the next six months. Among employed job seekers 34 percent say in October that they expect to be able to spend more money in the next six months, up from 30 percent who said this in September. This represents the third consecutive monthly increase of this finding.

For the October results, 500 hiring managers and 341 job seekers were interviewed. Interviews were independently conducted for The New York Times by Beta Research Corporation via random telephone interviews with job seekers and hiring managers in the New York metropolitan area. The survey results for each month include responses obtained over the previous two-month period.

About Job Market
Job Market, the print and online recruitment services offering of The New York Times, provides employers and job seekers with comprehensive resources to streamline the recruitment process. Job Market appears in The New York Times every Sunday and is updated throughout the week at www.nytimes.com, where job seekers can find job listings, career-related Times articles, exhaustive company research, a résumé database and valuable career resources.

Through the newspaper's national audience, which includes 5.0 million weekday readers and 5.5 million Sunday readers as well as the 1.4 million readers who visit www.nytimes.com every day, The New York Times Job Market reaches a marketplace of high-quality professionals actively seeking new job opportunities or considering career moves.

Each week, The New York Times Job Market issues research on industry trends and workplace practices affecting employers and job seekers in the metropolitan New York region. On a monthly basis, The New York Times Job Market releases its Job Market Confidence Index. The Index tracks current conditions for recruitment in the New York metro area as well as the future outlook for the coming six months. Copies of Job Market research reports are available upon request or at www.nytimes.com/jobmarket. New York-based Beta Research Corporation, via random telephone interviews, independently conducts The New York Times Job Market research.

NOTE: Job Market research is not affiliated with the editorial operations of The New York Times newspaper and does not reflect the views of the newspaper or its journalists. Source all references to Job Market research as: The New York Times Job Market.

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Contacts:
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