The Hudson Employment Index(SM) decreased to 100.5 in September, the lowest reading so far this year. A drop in both expected hiring and job satisfaction influenced the 2.4-point decline. Nevertheless, the latest reading is well above the 96.8 recorded last September, when the country was coping with the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Notably, the percentage of workers expecting their employers to add staff fell two points from August to 29 percent. This is the least optimistic workers have been about their companies' hiring plans since last September. There was also a one-point drop to 74 percent among workers happy with their job.

On a positive note, the number of workers anticipating job cuts held steady at 15 percent. Perceptions around finances also remained stable for the most part, although there was an encouraging two-point drop to 40 percent among workers who said their financial situation was getting worse.

"Our research finds that much of corporate America is seeing a slowdown in job growth, which is echoed by reports coming out of the Bureau of Labor Statistics," said Steve Wolfe, senior vice president, Hudson. "However, unchanged expectations around layoffs indicate that the slowing is simply that. Most employers are not reversing their course of action by letting people go."

Private enterprise workers also reported declines in expected hiring and job satisfaction. Each factor saw a three-point drop, hiring to 33 percent and job satisfaction to 70 percent. However, government employees and entrepreneurs did not mirror those sentiments. In fact, their perceptions of job satisfaction and hiring expectations showed improvement.



The Hudson Employment Index

The Hudson Employment Index (Hudson-Index.com) is based on monthly telephone surveys with approximately 9,000 U.S. workers. The Index tracks aggregate employment trends regarding career opportunities, hiring intentions, job satisfaction and retention. The data is compiled each month by Rasmussen Reports, LLC, an independent research firm (www.RasmussenReports.com).

Survey results are segmented by 11 cities: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Tampa, and Washington, D.C. The Index surveys five occupational sectors: accounting and finance, health care, information technology, manufacturing and legal. The Hudson Employment Index also measures employee confidence by age, gender, race and compensation.

Data reported in this release is based on a national telephone survey of 9,160 working Americans during the month of September. The margin of sampling error for a survey based on this number of interviews is approximately +/-1 percent with a 95 percent level of confidence. The data is not seasonally adjusted. It will be reviewed at year-end to determine if seasonal adjustments are appropriate. The Hudson Employment Index is a service mark owned by Hudson Highland Group, Inc.