Semper International Reports Jump in Hiring
The most recent survey indicates more positive business trends:
• 73% of companies surveyed reported a profitable Q4. This represents an increase of nearly 13 percentage points over last quarter.
• Looking at the first two weeks of Q1, current sales are stagnant over last quarter, likely an indication of the traditional January slow-down. The number of companies reporting a decrease in sales or no change remained approximately the same over last quarter.
• A mere 12.5% of the companies interviewed expected sales to decrease through the remainder of Q1, 2011. Last quarter nearly 20% expected a sales decrease.
• The vast majority of respondents indicated that hiring levels will remained the same or increase. There was a marked increase in companies hiring.
• More than two-thirds of companies reported that healthcare is the labor cost component that increased the fastest last quarter -- nearly five times greater than those reporting base pay, the next component. Companies are taking steps to control costs, but healthcare has remained the fastest growing component of cost for the last 4 quarters.
• The greatest competitive threat to printers remains largely unchanged from last quarter. Technology (48%)—the fear of what competititors are doing and how a company may need to respond—is the biggest threat, far exceeding supply costs (26%) and labor costs (19%).
• Print buyers place the greatest pricing pressure on offset printing (47%) but the pressure has eased somewhat from last quarter. Material cost pressures jumped 4 percentage points. Digital printing costs (23%), where there is clearly a lot of excess capacity, it is the largest component of job cost, and where print providers fight for market share.
• Referrals (37%) and online searches (33%) seem to be the most popular ways to find employees. These methods continue to put pressure on traditional help wanted advertising, which continued its downward trend, dropping another 4 percentage points.