Sounding Board: What trends are you seeing in hiring?

Mark Lettelleir [Photo: Mark Wemple]

Mark Lettelleir
President/CEO
Modern Business Associates
St. Petersburg

“We’re starting to see people hire, but it’s not anywhere near (back to) the level where they ... downsized, right-sized — whatever you want to call it. I’ve heard it from a number of my clients — they’re able to do as much or more with less than they ever have before. ... Employees are in many cases the largest expense of any organization, not only their salary or hourly wage but the benefit side — matching Social Security, federal unemployment, state unemployment, covering them on workers’ comp, health insurance. They’re obviously going up. Workers’ comp rates are starting to creep back up. Unemployment (taxes) will continually increase over the next few years. We owe so much money to the federal government, we’re going to have to pay it back. Everybody is going to continue to try to manage the cost (of health benefits) and put more of the onus on the individual.”