Marine industry hiring appears in line with national trend
Brent Renneke, Associate Editor
June 18, 2012
Filed under Brent Renneke
When we spoke with marine business owners in the spring of 2012, many were reluctant to add to their workforces, despite an economy that was seemingly on its way up. In a recently released survey, it appears the country’s small business owners as a whole are still reluctant to add jobs.
In the April edition of Boating Industry magazine, the majority of owners we spoke with were either hiring conservatively or concentrating on improving their facilities or processes. The same owners expressed a cautious optimism for the coming year.
According to a survey performed by SurePayroll in May, nationwide hiring has remained largely unchanged (0.1 percent decrease) compared to the previous month while optimism among small business owners was up, at 64 percent, compared to only 48 percent in August 2011.
It appears the marine industry, one of the hardest hit sectors in the recession, falls in line with the rest of the country’s trepidation to increase payroll. Both our industry and the rest of the nation’s small business owners are anxious about what is still an uncertain economy, according to this article by the Associated Press.
“We really don’t know exactly what’s going to happen. We can’t affect what’s going on in the outside, but we can affect what’s going on internally,” Alice Lerman, owner of a pet supplies store, said in the article.
Going forward, it will be interesting to monitor these monthly surveys. Small businesses nationwide face the same hiring restraints – government uncertainty, tight credit and lack of available talent. Therefore, the surveys can provide some insight into when hiring in the marine industry might begin to pick up.
