Jeffrey Joerres on ManpowerGroup and the Jobs Outlook

"When the railroad was invented, that created tens of thousands of jobs. Fast-forward to Instagram, which had just 13 employees"Photograph by Mark Peckmezian for Bloomberg Businessweek

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By Carol Hymowitz

August 10, 2012 at 12:15 AM UTC

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This article is part of the August 13, 2012 issue of businessweek.

Joerres, CEO since 1999, talks to Carol Hymowitz about taking ManpowerGroup from a provider of temporary employees to a full-service recruiter, outsourcer, and trainer operating in 82 countries.

Is 8 percent unemployment the new normal?
We’re going to struggle to get back to the Holy Grail of 5 percent unemployment. You need more growth today than in the past to produce the same amount of jobs. There are so many more efficiencies in the way we work. Companies are squeezing out a lot more with less. And just think of the innovations that created jobs in the past vs. today. When the railroad was invented, that created tens of thousands of jobs. Fast-forward to Instagram, which had just 13 employees.