Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Employers expected to fire not hire in 2009

Updated at 7:41 am on 16 December 2008

The staffing firm Manpower says times may be tough for job seekers for a while yet, as employers expect an increase in firing and not much hiring.

Its quarterly survey of 17,000 employers around the world paints a mixed picture for the first three months of 2009, but nearly two thirds of firms investigated are looking at the weakest prospects of new hiring since the survey began.

Manpower's president for Europe the Middle East and Africa Barbara Beck said employers are signalling that they are going to slow the pace of hiring in the first quarter of 2009.

Ms Beck said the Manpower survey showed job prospects are expected to worsen in the Asia-Pacific region, and Singapore is a particular blackspot.

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