Temporary Employment Declined Slightly in February

While temporary employment declined 0.3 percent from January to February, figures were 3 percent higher from February of this year to the same time last year, according to seasonally adjusted data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Non-seasonally adjusted BLS data, which estimates the actual number of jobs in the economy, indicated that temporary help employment decreased 0.4 percent from January to February. 

However, year-to-year, there were 3.1 percent more staffing employees in February than in the same month last year, and over the past 12 months, monthly staffing job growth averaged 3.8 percent.

Last year, U.S. staffing companies employed an average of 3.3 million temporary and contract workers per week, up 2.6 percent from 2014 according to the American Staffing Association.

Additionally, annual temporary and contract staffing sales in 2015 totaled $120.1 billion, up 2.8 percent over 2014.

During 2015, staffing companies hired a total of 15.9 million temporary and contract employees, the highest number since 2000. 

Theses workers’ tenures were slightly shorter though, with the average length of employment  dropping from 11.3 weeks in 2014 to 10.7 weeks in 2015.