Print edition: 
Kent Venters, as branch manager of temp agency Manpower in Wichita, has a pretty good feel for who's hiring, for what and how many.
So far, he said, demand for his temporary workers is up a little, but stronger demand is coming. That's a good sign because it usually signals a general rise in hiring.
Venters has been manager for seven months but has been with Manpower in Wichita for 10 years.
Originally from Dodge City, he has worked as a recruiter for Butler Community College and Integrated Solutions Group. He is married to Belinda, and they have two children.
What's going on with hiring?
"About three-fourths of companies (nationally) say they don't see any increase or decrease in their workforce for the upcoming year, 15 or 16 percent say there could be an increase, and another 5 percent say, 'Nah. We're probably going to decrease.' "
What about Wichita?
"It's right in the ballpark. We get a lot of orders in (for temps), but they are very sporadic right now. Some weeks we get a lot of orders, and other weeks it's pretty low. Most of the positions we're filling right now are due to attrition. There's not a lot of adding to our workforce; it's just replacing. The problem we're seeing is that our customers had all these massive layoffs.... The work didn't go away. Somebody's got to do it. So we're looking at some decrease in the number of individuals but increased workloads."
What's the impact of that?
"We're seeing a lot of turnover out there. For this economy, we're hearing, 'You better stay tight if you got a job,' but there is still a lot of people looking. A lot of it is because companies are forced to increase workloads."
What's hot?
"CNC machinists, CNC programmers. That is a real difficult position for us to fill right now. Either they're already working or they've left the area to pursue other positions.... We're going to have a talent shortage once it all kicks back in. We're kind of seeing that with the CNC programming. Once one company starts hiring, they all start hiring."
When will hiring ramp up?
"Late second quarter, early third quarter is what we're hearing a lot of. Some of the larger aircraft companies, they're saying fourth quarter, maybe."
