Video

The UK's hiring outlook is the lowest in 6 years, but in parts of Europe and Asia the picture is much brighter. MOREINFO: In its latest survey of global hiring prospects, leading employment company Manpower found that in most countries across the world, employers were optimistic about future hiring despite recent financial market problems. SCRIPT: The UK's hiring outlook is the lowest in six years. Britain's close economic ties with the United States mean that the recent subprime crisis has made employers cautious going into 2008. But David Arkless, an executive boardmember of Manpower Inc. which released its quarterly hiring outlook, says the figures do not spell disaster. SOUNDBITE: "With the UK financial markets being so linked to the US everyone in the big sectors in finacne and communications are just being a little bit cautious saying "have we seen the full wash through of this subprime issue so i'm not surprised that there is a little bit of caution but it's still a positive intnetion to hire in most sectors in most parts of the countries." And although U.S. markets are still feeling some effects from the subprime crisis and its hiring outlook is flat, the U.S. is continuing a pattern of cautious hiring which it has followed for the last six quarters. The picture in Europe is relatively bright. SOUNDBITE: David Arkless, an executive boardmember of Manpower Inc . "If one looks at Europe the nice surprises are in sectors like manufacturing, infrastrucutre, in places like Germany, in France and Italy." Countries on the periphery of the USA, rather than being effected by the slowdown in the U.S. seem to be bucking the trend of pessimism after the subprime issue. Mexico and Argentina's outlook is positive and Canada is anticipating its strongest first quarter hiring activity in seven years. The Asia-Pacific region also continues to show a strong hiring outlook with hotspots in Japan, Singapore and India - even after the consumer cycle boom over Christmas. But the report shows that many markets are more impacted by talent shortages than any carry-over effects from what is occurring in the U.S. and Arkless says the problem is huge and worldwide. SOUNDBITE David Arkless, an executive boardmember of Manpower Inc . "If you look at Europe over the next 20 years we lose net 50 million workers because of the basic demographic. So that's going to be a problem. It's a question today of saying if we want economic growth in most of the European countries, and indeed some Asian and American ones, we've got to start using the talent that we've got a lot better.." Despite a little conservatism coming out of the recent financial markets issues, the real difficulty for global economic growth is finding the right people in the right place at the right time. Stefanie McIntyre, Reuters