Current Staffing Industry Growth Trends
New data shows that staffing employment jobs are up from the previous year and continuing to follow the last year’s growth trends. According to one of the latest reports from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, temporary employment staffing increased by 0.5% from December 2016 to January 2017, and was up a whole 3.3% from January 2016. Throughout the past six months, year-to-year job growth has averaged 1.6% per month, compared to 1.4% over the whole previous year. Trend data reflects that staffing employment typically peaks in the last two months of the year, then dips in January, and then continues on to grow for the next eleven months; the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics adjusts for this seasonality when reporting numbers on staffing industry growth and staffing employment.
The Future of Staffing Industry Growth
The president and chief executive officer of the American Staffing Association, Richard Wahlquist spoke on the subject, “Staffing and recruiting firms are reporting increased client optimism about economic growth in 2017 across many sectors. However, the January jobs report that more growth is needed. The number of unemployed and underemployed workers was 9.4% in January, the highest level since October.” Non-seasonally adjusted data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests that temporary employment dropped 7.9% from December 2016 to January 2017, but there were 3.1% more staffing workers this January than the same month in the previous year.
The American Staffing Assocation Staffing Index reports that since the beginning of 2017, temporary and contract employment have only experienced positive growth. This graph shows year-to-year percent change, starting at January 1, 2017 until the week of February 6, 2017.
The American Staffing Association posted the original staffing employment and staffing industry growth statistics report and can viewed in its entirety here.
