About half as many Fairfax County employers plan to increase their staff next quarter as did for the same period last year, according to a survey released by a staffing firm this week.
Of the companies surveyed, 17 percent said they plan tohire more employees, while 7 percent indicated they would shrink their staffs in the third quarter of 2006, the Manpower Inc. survey showed. Last year, 40 percent of companies surveyed planned to add employees, and 13 percent said they would pare back.
John McClain, deputy director for George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis, said he was not surprised by the group’s findings. Northern Virginia, he said, has added 40,000 jobs in the past 12 months and maintained an unemployment rate of 2.3 percent.
“We are projecting a moderating of job growth, and I suspect some of these companies may be thinking that, too,” McClain said.
Manpower, which conducts the survey each quarter, polled 16,000 U.S. employers in 470 markets, said Renae Barlieb, branch manager for the company’s office in Northern Virginia. Manpower, however, does not provide local analysis on the results, she said.
Explaining the change, Fairfax County Economic Development Authority President Gerald Gordon said the county is moving out of a period of rapid employment increases brought about by Homeland Security Department procurements. He said the economy is slowing down in general, as well.
“[The economy] is strong,” he said. “It’s just not overwhelmingly strong.”
