Manpower Sends Specialist Staff To Assist In Gulf Cleanup

10th Jun 2010 20:17

By Doug Cameron Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES The head of Manpower Inc. (MAN) said Thursday that the temporary-employment group is marshaling specialist staff to assist in the oil-spill containment and cleanup effort in the Gulf of Mexico. Jeff Joerres, chairman and chief executive, also expects the huge Gulf operation to distort upcoming national jobs data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, though not to the degree caused by the recent national census. "There's no doubt it will have an impact on the monthly BLS [but] it's not a 'call-out' like the census," Joerres told Dow Jones Newswires. Manpower has a large presence in the global energy sector, which for years has been battling a shortage of engineers. Joerres said the extra staff sent to the Gulf for an unidentified client were drawn from the domestic market. He said he didn't expect the Gulf "tragedy" to slow the slow recovery in domestic employment, which has been driven by a cautious return to hiring in the manufacturing sector. However, Joerres cautioned that the trade-off between job-seekers remaining on unemployment benefits or taking positions in the $12-to-$14-an-hour range could start to lead to some labor shortages in two or three months as demand conditions improve. "We are starting to feel some pressure in light industrial [jobs]," he said. Joerres also said he hadn't seen any slowdown in demand in the Spanish market, despite the austerity measures being proposed as part of the government's efforts to address its fiscal problems. "Things haven't gotten worse in the last three months. [Employment] seems to be disconnected from the news." -By Doug Cameron, Dow Jones Newswires; 312-750-4135; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 10, 2010 15:17 ET (19:17 GMT)