Survey Suggests Spokane-Area Hiring Will Pick Up Next Year

Here’s an early Christmas present for Spokane-area job hunters.

Local employers expect hiring to pick up starting the new year. That, at least, is the outlook based on Manpower Inc.’s poll of employer hiring expectations for the first quarter of 1997.

“Our latest survey indicates 16 percent of those interviewed will staff up during the winter months,” reports Manpower’s Tom Droz, “while 6 percent are prepared to reduce their labor force.

“Another 75 percent say present levels will prevail, and 3 percent aren’t sure,” said Droz, manager in Spokane for the nation’s largest temporary staffing agency.

Last year at this time, he said, “The outlook was much weaker for the same period in 1996. At that time, 10 percent (of employers) said their personnel requirements had increased. But 20 percent intended to decrease staff.”

On a year to year basis, this figures out to be a 10 percent change for the better, according to Manpower’s calculations.

Manpower conducts quarterly employer outlook surveys. Droz said employer staffing plans three months ago reflected current thinking, with 20 percent of those polled expecting to add workers, and 10 percent expecting to cut back.

Hereabouts, the best job prospects this winter appear to be in construction and wholesale/retail trade, according to Droz.

Staff cutbacks are projected in durable goods manufacturing.

Nationally, too, the traditional first-quarter slump in hiring is less than expected, Manpower reports. Some 21 percent of U.S. employers say they intend to hire more, and 11 percent less. Another 64 percent expect no change, and 4 percent are unsure.

But despite comparing favorably with the national outlook, Spokane’s job prospects appear dim next to Seattle’s. In the Seattle area, 47 percent of employers expect to hire - that’s three times the percentage figure for Spokane. And it’s a 33 percent improvement year to year.

The huge, red-hot Puget Sound employment market skews statewide statistics so crazily that overall percentages become meaningless. But just for the record, the poll shows 26 percent of Washington employers are in a hiring mood, but that figure is 60 percent higher than in either Spokane or Tri-Cities, the only two labor markets surveyed on this side of the Cascades.

Dry ice sales set a record during the region’s recent ice storm.

At 109 degrees below zero, dry ice is widely used during prolonged power outages to preserve perishable foods in supermarket walk-ins and home freezers.

During a three-day period at the peak of the electrical blackout, American Dry Ice Corp. sold 100,000-plus pounds of dry ice to shivering residents, says Jerry Gillogly, Spokane manager. People stood in long lines for up to three hours to buy blocks of compressed carbon-dioxide so cold it smokes.

“That’s by far the most we’ve ever sold during any power outage, or any comparable period of any kind for that matter, since we started in the dry ice business in Spokane in the early 1970s,” said Gillogly. “And that includes the great firestorm of a few years back, along with all the worst wind storms that have ever hit this area, and all other storms of any description.

“Typically, the busiest retail day of the year for dry ice is Halloween,” said Gillogly. “But I figure we went through 15 to 17 times as much during the ice storm as on our busiest Halloween.”

This is probably a tad late to be of any practical help, but if another ice storm hits these parts, here’s a tip from Doris Mussil of Spokane. Instead of emptying your refrigerator and stashing the contents outside, where a freeze could turn perishables into icicles, Mussil advocates turning your refrigerator into an old fashioned ice box.

Obviously, there was no shortage of ice around. Mussil said icicles harvested from the eaves of her home kept her refrigerator serviceable with a minimum of disruption.

And finally, a downtown Spokane jeweler hopes to ring in 1997 with a snowfall of at least 3-1/2 inches between 6 p.m. and midnight on New Years Eve.

If the weather cooperates, customers of Mandell’s Jewelers will receive a full refund on all purchases made between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and get to keep the merchandise as well.

Either way, it won’t cost Mandell’s anything extra. The offer is insured.

This is the second year Mandell’s has made the snow offer. Last year, Mother Nature came up short.

But jeweler Barry Solomon says, “It’s a lot of fun, and people really do win. A jewelry store in Bellevue refunded more than $70,000 to customer this year for a similar event involving rain on Mother’s Day.”

, DataTimes MEMO: Associate Editor Frank Bartel writes a notes column each Wednesday. If you have business items of regional interest for future columns, call 459-5467 or fax 459-5482.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Frank Bartel The Spokesman-Review