Yahoo! Finance (01/05/12) Kulikowski, Laurie

According to the International Franchise Industry’s 2012 Business Outlook report, among the hottest industry segments going into 2012 is outsourcing/staffing. Terry Mackin, managing director at Generational Equity, a mergers and acquisitions firm, says that as businesses learn the value of technology in their operations, “not only do they get leaner and meaner, but they don’t have to rehire.” This creates a lot of opportunity for outsourcing, particularly when it comes to staffing, because “businesses have found they now can take advantage of concentrating on their core competency while bringing in other [part-time or temporary] professionals who have expertise in other areas,” Mackin notes.

Sara Sutton Fell, founder of FlexJobs.com, says companies specializing in alternative staffing will see lots of growth as employers look to hire on a project basis as opposed to permanent. “The long-held full-time job was proven not so secure a few years ago,” Sutton Fell says. There is “a lot of skepticism now in putting all your eggs in one basket where employers don’t owe you anything. The perception of a full-time job and what kind of security that actually lends has changed.”