Employers across the world are reporting steady employment outlooks for Q1 202 in most markets, though hiring intentions have weakened year-over-year in 26 of 43 countries according to the latest ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey of nearly 60,000 global employers.

The Net Employment Outlook is derived by taking the percentage of employers anticipating an increase in hiring activity and subtracting from this the percentage of employers expecting a decrease in hiring activity.

The strongest Q1 employment outlooks are reported by employers in Greece (+25%) and Japan (+25%).

The strongest year-over-year increases in hiring intentions were reported by employers in Turkey (up 9%), Greece (up 7%), Argentina and Norway (both up 5%).

The steepest year-over-year decreases were reported by employers in Slovenia (down 13%), Slovakia, Hong Kong and Hungary (down 7%).

Within EMEA, the strongest Q1 employment outlooks are reported by employers in Greece (+25%), Romania (+14%), Norway (+10%) and Turkey (+10%), as hiring plans remain strong but weaken in some of the region's largest economies.

Employers in France reported the strongest hiring intentions in 12 years (+7%), driven by a record-high +19% outlook in Restaurants & Hotels, a +10% outlook in Manufacturing and a +8% outlook in Finance & Business Services.

Germany recorded an outlook of +4%, a decrease of 5%, year-over-year, and the third consecutive quarter of declines.

Meanwhile, the +2% outlook reported by employers in the UK is the weakest in over seven years. Employers in London reported a -1% outlook, the region's lowest in over nine years, with the +1% overall outlook for England the joint lowest on record. Employers in the Manufacturing (+2%) and Mining & Quarrying (+2%) sectors were the only industries with year-over-year increases.

In Asia Pacific outlooks from employers in Japan (+25%) and Taiwan (+23%) rank among the strongest globally for the second consecutive quarter, while Chinese employers report the region's weakest outlook at +6%.

For the seventh consecutive quarter, employers in Japan reported the strongest outlook in the Asia Pacific region, driven by the Mining & Construction (+38%) and Services (+29%) sectors.

Singapore's +9% outlook marked the region's strongest quarter-over-quarter increase, of 5%.

Within the Americas region, employers in all but one of the ten countries surveyed report positive hiring outlooks, with Panama's -1% the only negative forecast both regionally and globally. Employers in seven of the region's 10 markets report weaker outlooks year-over-year.

Jonas Prising, ManpowerGroup Chairman & CEO commented, “We are seeing more hesitant hiring plans for Q1, impacted by increased volatility and expectations of slowing economic growth, especially in the manufacturing sector."

"At the same time, employers are also struggling to find the required skills within labour markets experiencing high numbers of open positions alongside low unemployment,” Prising said. “As digital transformation and talent shortages continue, employers are realising that they cannot always go to market to find new skills when they need them and that we need to become builders of talent to develop a workforce with the skills organizations need to remain competitive."