KPLU Local News
(2010-11-09)
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Shoppers (on a recent October Saturday in downtown Seattle) are frequenting businesses whose owners say they are feeling a little more optimistic about their fortunes in 2011. A new Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce survey shows many businesses foresee making new hires in 2011.
Gary Davis/KPLU.
(KPLU) -
With unemployment stuck at more than 8%, King County residents might wonder when the region will start hiring again. According to a new survey of employers by the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, maybe as soon as next year. It shows surprising levels of optimism about 2011.
The future looks brighter next year to more than half of the 1200 businesses surveyed in the new "King County Business Barometer." Only 7% think they will be worse off. The report on challenges and opportunities in the local economy also found that 41% of the companies it queried expect to hire next year. Alison Peters authored the study. She says the majority of that hiring will come from small and mid-sized companies.
"This was the sweet spot: companies between 6 and a hundred employees," she told a breakfast meeting of the Chamber. "Almost half of companies in this size range plan to grow next year. Among the technical sectors - and that is aerospace and energy and health sciences and life sciences - that number was even higher than fifty percent."
But the study also found that nearly a fifth of large employers (those with more than 500 employees) think they'll have to decrease their headcount next year. Local governments, real estate and construction are the least optimistic sectors.
The study was commissioned as a first annual benchmark. It sites education and transportation as key areas that need improvement to keep companies hiring here.
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