Banks are among companies still trimming staff. PNC Financial Services Group Inc., the sixth-largest U.S. bank by deposits, will cut 621 jobs in North Carolina and reassign some of the affected employees after buying Royal Bank of Canada's U.S. assets.
Corporate Bankers
The lender will redeploy a "significant number" of the people, Fred Solomon, spokesman for the Pittsburgh-based bank, said in a phone interview this week. After the deal is completed, PNC expects to add jobs including corporate bankers and asset managers, he said.
Kraft Foods Inc., the food company planning to split in two this year, said it would eliminate 1,600 jobs in North America this year, about 40 percent of them as a result of reorganizing U.S. sales, the Northfield, Illinois-based company said this week in a statement.
Some manufacturers are hiring. The Elgin, Illinois, based- U.S. unit of Germany's Harting Deutschland GmbH, a maker of industrial connectors, will probably hire 20 people this year after doubling the workforce to 120 since the recession, Chief Executive Officer Rolf Meyer said.
More Orders
"We have a couple of large orders that we're negotiating on in the broadcast and medical industries, and these will likely hit in the next five or six months," said Meyer, who, supplies customers such as General Electric Co. and Siemens AG.
The economy "expanded at a modest to moderate pace" from late November through the end of December, while most industries saw "limited permanent hiring," the Federal Reserve said in its Beige Book anecdotal business survey released last week. "The combination of limited permanent hiring in most sectors and numerous active job seekers has continued to keep a lid on general wage increases."
Fed policy makers hold their first policy meeting of the year on Jan. 24-25.