Rise in Big Layoffs Mars Otherwise Rosy Picture for Those Looking for Work

There doesn’t seem to be any end in sight to the booming American job market.

Manpower Inc., which publishes a closely watched survey of employers’ hiring plans, calls the outlook for the first three months of 1998 the strongest ever for a first quarter in the 21 years the temporary help company has conducted its polls.

The report comes as the U.S. unemployment rate, which fell to 4.6% in November, rests at a 24-year low.

Aside from businesses that always slow down in January--such as retailing, wholesaling and construction--”nearly every industry is still trying to find people,” said Mitchell S. Fromstein, Manpower’s chief executive.

New college graduates figure to be among the beneficiaries, according to a separate poll of 421 employers by the Bethlehem, Pa.-based National Assn. of Colleges and Employers. Its survey found that employers plan to hire 19.1% more graduates in 1997-98 than in 1996-1997 and to pay bachelor’s and graduate degree holders 5.3% more in starting salaries.

“This should be the best year of the decade,” said Camille Luckenbaugh, director of employment information for the association.

Still, there’s at least one worrisome sign for working people. Big layoffs, after declining over much of this year, have made a comeback recently.

“Layoffs are continuing in an economy that has one of the prettiest job pictures we’ve seen since the early ‘70s,” said John A. Challenger, executive vice president of the big outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. “Companies are clearing out their bureaucracies and their unprofitable and unproductive areas and freeing up resources to grow in other areas.”

Holiday Bonuses Slide Downhill

Amid the soaring national economy, many employers are preoccupied with finding and holding on to good workers. But corporate generosity during the holiday season doesn’t appear to be an ingredient in many firms’ employee-retention plans.

A poll of 2,074 executives and managers by the American Management Assn. found that about 30% are getting holiday bonuses this year, down from 33% the year before. What’s more, the percentages appear to be far lower for workers at the biggest companies and for those holding positions on the lower rungs of the corporate ladder.

“This is one of many indications that the financial gains that corporations are seeing are not being fully shared with the employee base,” said Eric Greenberg, the AMA’s research director.

On the other hand, Greenberg said, many companies that have shifted away from holiday bonuses are instead offering bonuses tied to business performance, and those could show up in workers’ paychecks early next year.

As for other traditional holiday season benefits, employer surveys show that holiday parties remain widespread in the workplace. At the same time, one poll suggests that more employers are requiring employees to foot at least part of the cost.

Etiquette Tips for Voicemail Users

Do you dread receiving long-winded voicemail messages at the office? Worse yet, do you sometimes find yourself leaving stream-of-consciousness messages when you call customers or colleagues?

Ken Taylor, president of the San Francisco-based communications training company Decker Communications, offers some suggestions. The main aim is to keep things brief, limiting messages to 20 to 30 seconds by sticking to a single subject. If you must run on longer, try to let the listener know early on.

“People ramble,” Taylor said. “They don’t realize that the listener doesn’t care about so much of what they have to say.”

Taylor also urges his clients never to send negative messages by voicemail because the impact is likely to be stronger than intended. For the sake of sound quality and to avoid putting off listeners, Taylor advises against using speakerphones when recording messages.

Another tip is to be precise. Leave specific times, spell out unfamiliar or difficult names and leave your direct phone number or extension. Likewise, if you have voicemail or an answering machine on your own phone, update your greeting regularly so that callers will know if, say, you are on vacation or expect to be away from the office all or much of the day.

And speaking of phone numbers, a caller should leave it at the beginning of his message and state it slowly enough so that the listener can easily jot it down. It’s sometimes helpful to repeat the phone number at the end of the message too, but remember not to require someone to listen until the end of a long message just to pick up the number. Instead of waiting, Taylor noted, the listener might just kill the entire message.

Times staff writer Stuart Silverstein can be reached by e-mail at stuart.silverstein@latimes.com or by phone at (213) 237-7887. If you reach his voicemail, well, try to leave a brief, precise message.