By DEBORAH GERTZ HUSAR

Herald-Whig Staff Writer

Twenty-seven percent of Quincy area companies plan to hire more employees, while only 3 percent expect to reduce their payrolls in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey.

Sixty-seven percent of businesses expect to maintain current staff levels.

The survey released today said job prospects appear best in durable goods manufacturing and wholesale/retail trade heading into the months of October, November and December. Many of the jobs are expected to be seasonal and temporary.

Hiring intentions are weaker than a year ago when 40 percent of companies surveyed planned to increase staff levels and 10 percent expected to cut payrolls.

"It's not unusual this time of year that most growth is in retail," heading into the holiday season, said Jim Mentesti, president of the Great River Economic Development Foundation.

But Mentesti said the upcoming presidential election and high fuel and energy prices have business owners taking a second look at expansion plans.

"When you've got two things like that that impact your bottom line, it makes people be a little more hesitant," Mentesti said. With uncertainty over what will happen with a new president, "people have a tendency to put expansion plans on hold trying to determine just where we will be in the next 12, 24, 36 months."

The small number of employers planning job cuts is encouraging, Mentesti said, and a sign of confidence in the local economy and the value of ongoing business retention efforts.

"For a time like this, those are numbers we can live with," Mentesti said.

Unemployment in Adams County stood at 5.5 percent in July, the highest level in five years. National unemployment figures released last week topped 6 percent for the first time since 2003.

Thirty percent of companies interviewed intended to add employees and 7 percent planned to reduce staff levels in the third quarter this year.

Amy Looten, executive director of the Quincy Area Chamber of Commerce, said the survey shows stability in the Quincy job market. "It doesn't show huge growth, and it doesn't show huge reductions either," Looten said. "At this point, we probably ought to be pretty satisfied with that."

With 27 percent of businesses planning to hire, "it's showing that our economy is pretty healthy," Looten said.

"The business community is always looking for opportunities to grow, but it's a delicate time right now. I think they're being very conservative. They're going to control their growth and make sure expansion plans are good for the long-term."

Nationally, employers project a continued decline in hiring intentions with seasonally adjusted data showing six of the 10 industry sectors surveyed will decrease hiring slightly compared to the third quarter.

The Manpower survey found 22 percent of employers surveyed nationally expect to increase staff levels during the October-December period while 13 percent plan to reduce their payrolls. Fifty-nine percent expect no change in hiring, and 6 percent are undecided about fourth quarter hiring plans.

"The near-term employment outlook appears to have stabilized in some industry sectors and continues to grow in mining, creating potential opportunity for job seekers," Jonas Prising, president of Manpower North America, said in a news release.

Mining is the only sector nationally looking to increase staff levels for the upcoming quarter.

-- dhusar@whig.com/221-3379