Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer & Head of Investor Relations, MANPOWERGROUP
Manpower CEO: Not many green jobs
Manpower CEO Jeff Joerres says that green technology won't add a large number of jobs for several years.
About John Mcginnis
In a 2011 interview, John McGinnis, then Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Head of Investor Relations at ManpowerGroup, appeared alongside CEO Jeff Joerres. Joerres stated that companies were hiring but remained cautious due to insufficient demand for their products and services. He noted that nearly 60% of ManpowerGroup's growth came from manufacturing, with a shift into office administration as a second phase of recovery. Joerres described the available manufacturing jobs as "sophisticated manufacturing" requiring higher-level skills, rather than simple production work. Joerres also commented on government policy, saying that the private sector, not the government, must create jobs. He argued that cutting corporate tax rates without adding to the deficit would be the most effective step the administration could take. Regarding technology, he stated that increased spending on efficiency and productivity allowed companies to "do more with less," leading to record profits without a proportional increase in hiring. He added that green technology would not generate a large number of jobs in the near term.
Transcript (16 segments)
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Interviewer0:01
You run one of the biggest employment firms not only in the US but on the planet. Are companies really ready to hire substantially this year? Because we have to see it.
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John Mcginnis0:13
I was about to say yes when I was listening to your question until you said substantially. Companies are going to hire, but they're still going to be very careful because the fact is there's not enough demand for their products or services. But the companies we're talking to, not just in the US but across the world minus of course Asia which is growing, they're saying they're going to hire, they're going to hire as many as they can, but it's in the context of their demand.
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Interviewer0:37
What are the sectors where we're going to see that growth, particularly in the US and in Europe? We often don't talk about the unemployment crisis in Europe that in many ways is much worse than in the US.
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John Mcginnis0:45
So what we've seen so far in 2010, in particular, manufacturing actually grew quite a bit. Almost 60% of all of our growth came from manufacturing. We've now just started to see it turn, which is a good sign, into office administration. That's normally the second phase of the recovery. So as long as this has been going on, we are starting to see it be a little bit more classic than we have in the past.
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Interviewer1:06
Jeff Immelt, the head of GE, just appointed by the president to run his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, and he is the one that says manufacturing in this country will bring us out and will create a lot of jobs. How do you see that playing out? Because the US is nowhere near the manufacturing hub that it was, but there still is a large manufacturing base.
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John Mcginnis1:30
I think we forget about that. We have to make sure that we focus on value-added manufacturing. When we look at our clients, they're asking for more sophisticated talent, higher level people, because they know that they need it. Good quality assurance engineers, manufacturing engineers that are trying to make the steel a little bit better. The whole kind of value-add is where we need to go because that's where the jobs are and can be. It's not manufacturing as we knew it. This is sophisticated manufacturing. Because if you go to simple manufacturing, you lose to the labor arbitrage.
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Interviewer2:03
Last year speaking here you said, 'I hope they make the right call when it comes to the tactic they take for job creation.' Look, the government can't do it all, they can't even do most of it. It has to come from the private sector. But do you think that the administration has taken the right path?
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John Mcginnis2:21
Well, last year at this time they actually took a path of creating jobs through incentives. And I had the opportunity to go before the Joint Economic Committee and say that it's not going to create jobs, it's going to spread some dollars around. If you want to do that, that's fine. What's coming out now is businesses create jobs. Now what can we do to unencumber businesses to create jobs? That's the path.
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Interviewer2:41
What's the number one thing the administration could do? Is it about what the president addressed in the State of the Union, and that is cutting corporate tax rates without adding to the deficit?
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John Mcginnis2:49
I don't think it's one thing. Cutting tax rates, which we are now on a worldwide basis highest tied with Japan, will make a difference. But it's also the awareness, the education, and free trade. We have to be able to trade on this global basis. Now the president talked about the importance of two-way trade with China, that tariffs are not the answer. He's also focused so much on this green revolution, from wind turbines to solar panels, fuel efficiency across the board.
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Interviewer3:18
But I wonder if you think that realistically is going to create the volume of jobs that we need.
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John Mcginnis3:23
Well, we know it won't, but it's the right thing to do. So why talk about it so much? It is a good topic to talk about, it brings some energy. But the fact is, if you look at the number of jobs that that will create over a long period of time, right, but in the next two to three to four years where we actually need the jobs that are in place now but more of them, it's not going to help us.
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Interviewer3:43
What about technology? How would you say overall the improvement in technology that is substantial year by year has affected the labor force, affected the job market?
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John Mcginnis3:52
I think it has affected it dramatically. When you look at what technology does and you look at the enhanced technology spend now happening not only in 2010 but in 2011, it's all going towards efficiency and productivity, being able to do more with less. Between technology, globalization, and the pressures put on individuals, we absolutely through the research look at this being the human age. This is when the person breaks out and says technology is interesting, but it's going to be my innovation that's going to save the company. There are only so many people that really innovate in a substantial way. Companies have reported record profits this year, they don't need to hire to the levels they were at before. So what do we do with those people in between? They have to be used differently. What we're seeing is different work models. You're not going to innovate in the classic sense. Look what's happening to large pharmaceutical companies, they're taking their R&D expense and saying I'm going to let the world innovate, I'm going to institutionalize it. It's a different model, and because we're in the middle of that change, it's affecting the labor market dramatically.
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Interviewer4:53
Thanks so much, Jeff.
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John Mcginnis4:54
Thank you.