Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, MANPOWERGROUP
Entrevista Jonas Prising, CEO Manpower. Parte 2
En entrevista para Mundo Ejecutivo Express TV con Luis Miguel Díaz-Llaneza, Jonas Prising, CEO Manpower quien habló sobre la falta de estabilidad de la empresas y manifestó cuales son las principales razones.
MUNDO EJECUTIVO TV
Luis Miguel Díaz-Llaneza Conductor y Productor
Leonardo Aramis Flores Carranza, Co Productor y Coordinador de Mundo Ejecutivo TV
Igor Eichin Productor Efekto TV (Capital Media)
19 de diciembre 2017
About Jonas Prising
Jonas Prising, Chairman and CEO of ManpowerGroup, has stated that the U.S. labor market is cooling, describing the trend as "pretty clear." He noted that June 2025 was the worst hiring month of the year, with private sector employment at a low, and attributed a stronger-than-expected jobs report to unusually high levels of government hiring, particularly at the state level. Prising said employers are "very cautious" and that tariff threats are adding uncertainty to hiring plans, causing companies to hold on to their current workforce rather than expand. He described the global hiring outlook as "solid," citing ManpowerGroup's Employment Outlook Survey, but characterized the figure as average rather than strong. Regarding artificial intelligence, Prising said the technology is "moving faster than we could have even anticipated" but that adoption is proceeding at a slower pace than many expected. He stated that most jobs will be "changed and evolved and be strengthened with AI" rather than replaced, and that AI is particularly suited for tasks related to content, communication, and coding. Prising noted that the only area where his data shows AI impacting employment levels is in software programming, where unemployment has risen. He said that to fulfill AI's promise of productivity, organizations must change how work is structured and how skills are used to augment human capability.
Transcript (9 segments)
✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
I
Interviewer0:03
Jonah's some very interesting concepts that have evolved in the modern world. The gig economy, human age 2.0, those are changing significantly the way we look at jobs, and particularly the younger ages, the younger generations. I mean, they look at jobs completely different from maybe what you and I used to look at.
J
Jonas Prising0:26
That's right. We've really seen the evolution of some structural changes in labor markets that are very similar wherever you are in the world. So you can think of demographics: the population is either aging quicker and shrinking or aging, so you have a demographic bonus here in Mexico. Absolutely a great benefit, and I think will carry you forward for a number of years, but we also know that it's going to end. The population growth is slowing down. You have the leapfrogging of technology between different markets, which means you can very quickly create skills shortages even when you have access to a lot of people in the workforce. And you also have individuals making different choices. They understand that jobs for life are not there. They understand that they will change careers more often, so they become much more selective in terms of how they are choosing an employer, but also much more willing to move from one employer to the other, which causes challenges for organizations to retain and attract the talent that they need to execute their skills. And then last but not least, companies are really thinking about and applying supply chain thinking to talent acquisition. OK, they know what skills they need, for how long, where it's needed, and how much it can cost, with a very fine level of detail. So they are much more reactive, they are rethinking and becoming workforce platforms as opposed to monolithic organizations. So many, many changes are occurring in the labor markets right now.
I
Interviewer1:57
Wow, that's amazing. I remember when the Japanese came with the revolution in terms of manufacturing with the Kaizen concept, right, and the just-in-time concept. And what you're describing is a little bit like that. I mean, you're looking at the supply chain and you know what skill you're going to need when, and so you look for it specifically for that particular moment.
J
Jonas Prising2:13
Yeah, and I think you can see it reflected in some of the behaviors that have happened in various economies. If you think about the Great Recession in the U.S., how quickly unemployment went up and employment dropped. That's because all of the companies immediately saw the drop in demand. Normally this is something that goes on for three or four or five months, by the time you get to the end it starts to move back up again. In this case the hit was instantaneous. The demand dropped and that means the company started to pull back instantaneously. So they have a much finer understanding of where they need the workforce. So you can think about it as consuming labor, which causes tensions on the other side because it creates a lot of insecurity in terms of what the individuals are feeling and how they can progress their careers. And that's why when we think about the lack of loyalty, organizations talk about people aren't as loyal anymore. But if you think about it, they're actually making a very rational decision based on the changing work environment, which is: 'I have to take care of my own career. I have to build my own skills. I'm choosing employers that provide me the opportunity to increase my skills, and when I feel that I need to make a move so I'm becoming more marketable, I am willing to make that move to a much greater degree than I was in the past.'
I
Interviewer3:36
Absolutely. I'm going to make you a question that just popped into my head, and you know, I used to work for an airline at some point in my career. And the key thing there is that it's such a capital-intensive industry that unfortunately the variable that you can most leverage are the employees, right? Hence also labor unions. What do you think is the future of labor unions in an economy and the world like the one that you've described, where there's this supply chain view of the job market and then also individuals being more in a gig mentality and looking for something that, you know, is going to fulfill their particular needs at a given moment?
J
Jonas Prising4:14
Well, I think we have seen examples in countries or organizations where unions have had a very productive role, but they have had a mind shift. The shift has been to really regard the company as a way of guaranteeing the success of future employment. But to do that, the company needs to have the flexibility to adapt to different situations, and the role of the union becomes different. So the role then is no longer 'at all costs protect every single member of the union,' but rather trying to look at the employee base as a whole and say, 'We understand that you need to change the way the company is run, but we in turn would like to have skills and development opportunities. We'd like to have an evolution and a strategy that we can help support.' So they have made a shift. And I think for the future of unions, it is important for them to make this shift to represent the broader base. Because also for employers, it can be useful to have a productive conversation with a counterpart as opposed to having to deal with individuals all the time.
I
Interviewer5:22
Absolutely, especially if you're making big shifts, but that then also means that you have to have a constructive dialogue about where the organization needs to go and not so much about protecting the company and wishing that it was the way it was in the past.
J
Jonas Prising5:38
And I think it's good to have that evolution. And unions in the countries that are able to make that shift, I think the unions can play a very productive role and be part of this forward-looking evolution. By the same token, in areas or countries where it's always only backward-looking and only looking at your member participation, that's where your focus is, you're going to start to see young people wishing to represent themselves. And that is why everywhere in the world, union membership has come down dramatically over the last 20 years.
I
Interviewer6:14
Absolutely. Jonas, as well, thank you so much again for taking time to visit us here in Mexico. I hope that you do a lot of business here in Mexico and that you help the labor force in Mexico and many companies to take the next level and go to the next level of employment, the next level of capabilities, and the next level of performance in the modern world. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining me. Amigos, wait, Jonas Prising, Chairman & CEO of ManpowerGroup.