Help-Wanted Ads Off Amid Employer Cautiousness

Help-wanted ads in newspapers fell in November as businesses held off looking for workers because of concerns about future economic weakness, according to a report released Thursday by the Conference Board.

Job experts said many businesses are putting off hiring until after the new year. Poor holiday sales and the government shutdown have given employers the jitters about how business will fare in 1996.

“There’s real cautiousness about hiring,” said John Challenger, head of Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., a Chicago-based outplacement consulting company.

The Conference Board’s help-wanted advertising index, a barometer of regional job conditions, fell to 127 last month, down from 131 in October and 134 in November 1994.

The index, based on a scale of 100, is derived from the volume of employment ads appearing in 51 major newspapers nationwide.

The negative reading on employment demand comes a day after the release of a pessimistic report on consumer confidence, also published by the Conference Board. Consumer confidence is largely tied to the outlook for jobs.

Overall, job ad volume has remained relatively stable in the last five months after rising through the first half of the year, the research group said.

Conference Board economist Ken Goldstein, noting that initial unemployment claims have edged higher in recent weeks, said that “there is growing concern that the economy’s performance may decline during the next six months, spurring a new round of layoffs.”

October and November were the second- and third-largest layoff months of the year, according to a Challenger survey. Employers let 41,335 workers go in October and 41,293 in November.

The biggest layoff month was May, when employers announced they were slashing 58,530 jobs.

Cost-cutting programs fueled most of the layoffs, Challenger said. Companies are shedding operations they consider redundant. Others are laying off people as a result of mergers and acquisitions.