McKinsey have published an interactive timeline of their executive economic expectations survey results 2004 to today, allowing you to see how responses to individual questions have changed over time…right up to April 2010.

While all question responses are important to strategic workforce planning, the one which is most immediately applicable is “how do you expect the size of your company’s workforce to change in the next six months?”.  Here’s a snapshot:

 

Mar 07

Mar 08

Mar 09

Apr 10
Increase

46.9%

36.9%

11%

31%
Decrease

18.3%

29.9%

38%

17%
Stay the same

33.7%

31.7%

50%

52%

As with most data, the visualization is better:

image

The message is still the same though – plans for reductions are back at pre-GFC levels, but expectations of growth have not yet returned there.  In the interactive tool, you can look at the results by region, industry, etc – India and Asia Pacific are most optimistic for growth, but all Europe classifications are below the global average. 

Where does your organization fit compared to these “benchmarks”? And does your planning fit the context these results show?  Vital stuff for your environment scan!