According to ManpowerGroup net employment expectations in Colombia have gone down from 20% in the last quarter of 2014 to 13% in the fourth quarter of 2015.

The net employment expectation is the difference between the percentage of companies that aims to increase its staff and the percentage of companies that expects to reduce it. During the last quarter of 2015 47% of companies do not expect to make changes in their staff, 19% expects to increase it and 6% to reduce it.

Though this is a stable figure, especially when compared to the figures seen in 2015, it is 7 points below the number obtained in 2014.  When the numbers are adjusted by seasonality the result goes up to 14%, but remains way below 2014 figures.

This means that the situation has had a strong impact on companies and, even though there are growth expectations, these are not very sustainable. Nevertheless, the employment reduction number remains slightly below the 2014 data. Most companies expect to maintain stable payrolls due to uncertainty.

The largest companies are the ones that resist the slowdown the most and have a wider margin to hire. This explains that 33% of these companies expect to increase their payrolls.

On the contrary, micro-companies are the most affected and only 14% expect to hire more people and 6% plans to reduce staff. Anyway, SMEs need more employees and probably their employment expectations will remain positive during the months to come.

Analysing the situation by economic sectors, it becomes clear that the public sector, together with the real estate and financial sector will drive employment. Other sectors that expect growth are agriculture and trade. The industry are recovering, therefore, it one of the sector with the lowest expectations.

According to Manpower, Colombia leads the employment expectations in Latin America and is number two in America, right behind the United States. In addition, Colombia and Argentina are the only countries where expectations have grown in 2015.
Source: Dinero