11 Apr Temporary Employment Hiring Is Improving
Posted at 17:05h
in Uncategorized
By Mark Perry on April 10, 2012
The American Staffing Association reported todaythat its weekly Staffing Index of temporary and contract employment increased to a year-to-date high of 90 for the week ending April 1, which was almost 6% above the year-ago level and 0.74% above the previous week. For Week 14, it was the highest reading since 2008 (see top chart above), and just slightly below the 91 index level for the comparable week in 2007. The bottom chart shows the monthly measure of Temporary Help Services employees from the BLS, and the 2.48 million temporary employees in March of this year was the highest since February 2008, although it fell slightly from 2.487 million in February.
As a leading indicator of future, broader-based labor demand, the upward trend in the ASA Staffing Index this year, and the upward trend in temporary employment for the last two years would suggest that conditions in the labor market will continue to improve going forward.