Many Employers May Rehire Workers They Laid Off

With 14.9 million Americans out of work and looking for jobs in August, economists are less than optimistic about the prospects of getting the unemployment rate back to pre-recessionary levels in a reasonable amount of time. But some workers may be able to find a home back where they last worked, according to a couple of new reports.

[See the good and bad news about job openings.]

It turns out that 40 percent of employers expect they will hire back some of the workers they laid off in the recession, according to a new survey by OI Partners. The employers surveyed said they would be rehiring workers as full-time employees, consultants or freelancers. About half of financial companies surveyed said they planned to rehire workers, and 47 percent of manufacturing companies said the same.

"Financial services and manufacturing were among the industries affected most by the recession, and made the deepest workforce cutbacks. That is why they may be more ready than other sectors to re-hire some employees they had to let go," says OI Partners chairman Tim Schoonover.

Indeed, a recent survey by Robert Half International and CareerBuilder found similar results—36 percent of hiring managers expressed interest in rehiring workers laid off by their firms. In that survey, managers said they still face the challenge of under-qualified job applicants.

[See one quiet factor in the unemployment rate.]

Training is expensive, and while employers seem not yet confident enough of consumer demand to begin beefing up payrolls, they clearly hope to tap a supply of ready-trained workers when necessary.