Staffing industry here to stay
Posted on October 22nd, 2013 Read time: 1 minutes
During an economic recession, companies tend to boost their percentage of temporary workers to maintain business growth without adding permanent workers to the payroll. Such instances of this occurred in 2009 when the percentage of temporary workers in the overall U.S. workforce peaked at around 20 percent. However, during the years since, the percentage of temps in the workforce has stayed about the same despite improvements in the economy. Meanwhile, the overall number of temp jobs has soared, increasing more than 50 percent since June 2009. The number now totals nearly 2.7 million jobs in the U.S., Investing Daily reported, which is the highest number recorded. The data suggests that far from being a passing trend, temp employment could be a permanent fixture on the American economy.
One reason the trend has persisted could be that many different industries have adopted the method. In the same Investing Daily article, staffing company Kelly Services was profiled. The company, which started out hiring secretary workers in the 1940s, has grown to encompass "almost every conceivable sector," including IT roles, school workers and technicians. In a blog post for Staffing Industry Analysts, John Megally also notes the growing importance of temp workers in the science, technology, engineering and math areas. Temporary hiring could give many college graduates a chance to work in highly competitive fields.
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Posted on October 22nd, 2013 Read time: 1 minutes
During an economic recession, companies tend to boost their percentage of temporary workers to maintain business growth without adding permanent workers to the payroll. Such instances of this occurred in 2009 when the percentage of temporary workers in the overall U.S. workforce peaked at around 20 percent. However, during the years since, the percentage of temps in the workforce has stayed about the same despite improvements in the economy. Meanwhile, the overall number of temp jobs has soared, increasing more than 50 percent since June 2009. The number now totals nearly 2.7 million jobs in the U.S., Investing Daily reported, which is the highest number recorded. The data suggests that far from being a passing trend, temp employment could be a permanent fixture on the American economy.
One reason the trend has persisted could be that many different industries have adopted the method. In the same Investing Daily article, staffing company Kelly Services was profiled. The company, which started out hiring secretary workers in the 1940s, has grown to encompass "almost every conceivable sector," including IT roles, school workers and technicians. In a blog post for Staffing Industry Analysts, John Megally also notes the growing importance of temp workers in the science, technology, engineering and math areas. Temporary hiring could give many college graduates a chance to work in highly competitive fields.
