People Report, NRN Online join forces to bring quarterly workforce index to industry operators

Nation's Restaurant News,  Nov 12, 2007  by Dina Berta

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DALLAS -- The foodservice labor market may be showing signs of softening as restaurant operators report fewer new jobs and vacancies and less difficulty recruiting for most of this year, according to the "Q4 '07 Workforce Index," developed by People Report, a firm here that tracks human resource data for more than 100 restaurant chains.

The workforce index is a quarterly barometer of market pressures on employment issues. In an exclusive agreement with Nation's Restaurant News, the People Report quarterly workforce index will be published by NRN Online, at www.nrn.com, beginning in January.

"The People Report has been helping foodservice operators assess and improve their hiring and retention practices for more than a decade," said NRN Publisher Alan Gould. "We are very excited to be offering the readers of NRN Online the excellent information provided by the People Report Workforce Index."

People Report created the index to provide real time data on key labor indicators such as staffing expectations and recruiting difficulty, said Joni Doolin, founder and chief executive of the firm whose members represent more than 13,000 units.

"Providing operators with the ability to forecast and plan a response to these issues gives participants, as well as our industry, a distinct competitive advantage," Doolin said.

The index, released at the start of the year's fourth quarter, measures responses from 62 operators regarding activity in five components of hourly and management workforce: employment levels, recruiting difficulty, job vacancies, employment expectations and turnover.

Employment levels measure the increase or decreases in employee headcounts. Recruiting difficulty tracks the challenge in filling positions. Job vacancies measures increases or decreases in open positions.

Turnover is a lagging indicator. The turnover data for hourly and management employees is collected from the more than 100 People Report member companies from July 2006 to July 2007.

The fourth-quarter index showed there was less activity or concerns among four of the components during the second and third quarters of 2007. The measurement for the fifth component, turnover, rose slightly, but overall it remained stagnant or decreased for most companies.

The index numbers for each area are in a range of value from a low of 0 to a high of 100. Values greater than 50 indicate increased levels--concern or activity--of that component. A value less than 50 indicates decreased levels for that component. For example, the value for turnover has remained below 50 since the second quarter of this year, indicating turnover had declined or held steady for most companies.

However, despite the lessening of job growth indicated by the index respondents, the inaugural Workforce Index report did acknowledge that the foodservice industry has posted substantial job growth--a net gain of 67,000 jobs during the second quarter, though that was not as many as in the second quarter, when there was a net gain of 99,000 jobs.

"While other industries such as retail, manufacturing and financial services cut tens of thousands of jobs in the third quarter, the foodservice sector continued to add to payrolls," the study noted.

The workforce index also is broken out by industry segments: quick service, fast casual/family dining, casual dining, fine dining and high-volume concepts.

While employment expectations continued to be strong across industry segments, employment levels and recruiting difficulty dropped slightly for casual and fine dining, the inaugural index report indicated.

dberta@nrn.com

People Report Workforce Index 2007 Results

                           Q1     Q2     Q3     Q4

Workforce Index           69.3   67.1   68.9   66.8
Employment Levels         73.2   69.8   71.9   68.4
Recruiting Difficulty     68.4   62.0   67.7   65.9
Vacancies                 57.7   57.0   62.7   60.6
Employment Expectations   73.7   77.7   78.1   76.7
Turnover                  53.9   47.1   43.4   46.1

* The numbers corresponding to each component are in a range of value
from a low of 0 to a high of 100. Values greater than 50 indicate
increased levels of that component (employment levels, recruiting
difficulty, vacancies, employment expectations, or turnover).
Conversely, values less than 50 indicate decreased levels of that
particular component.

SOURCE: PEOPLE REPORT

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