Improvement forecast in Atlanta area hiring

ATLANTA - A new survey finds hiring in and around metro Atlanta will continue to be slow the rest of the year but there are signs things are stabilizing.

The employment firm Manpower Incorporated reports twelve percent of respondents say they plan to shrink their payrolls over the next three months, while only seven percent will add jobs. And that's during the typically busy holiday shopping season. But Manpower's Beth Herman says there are signs the market is stabilizing.

Herman tells the Georgia News Network durable goods manufacturing is a sector expected to shed jobs locally in the fourth quarter... along with professional business services and the government.

But Herman says the news isn't all bad... she points to the fact that 78 percent of responding companies plan to maintain current staffing levels through the end of the year... something she calls a sign of stability.