Wall Street Journal (01/23/12) John Revill

Staffing company Adecco SA is preparing for another bumpy ride as the chances of another recession in Europe increase. The fortunes of providers of temporary staff such as Adecco, ManpowerGroup, and Randstad Holding NV are tied closely to the economic cycle. “In 2012 we will likely head into a mild recession in Europe,” predicts Adecco chief executive Patrick De Maeseneire, adding that he foresees only a slow recovery in Europe after that, as companies hold back on their hiring plans. However, he adds that “in the mid- and long term we are very optimistic because our industry has high structural growth potential.”

European companies have fewer permanent staff and fill in the peaks with temporary workers, says De Maeseneire. “The only jobs that are being created now are flexible jobs,” he notes. Adecco has been expanding into professional staffing, including white-collar positions such as engineers and doctors. As part of this strategy, earlier this month Adecco bought Japanese professional-staffing company VSN. The firm has also boosted its counter-cyclical out-placement business through the 2011 acquisition of U.S.-based Drake Beam Morin.

Wall Street Journal (01/23/12) Joseph White

Major auto makers and their suppliers are spending billions to expand and retool U.S. factories. The Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, MI, reports that auto-industry employment in the U.S. is predicted to increase to 756,800 in 2015 from 566,400 in 2010, with most of that increase in Michigan. Big major auto companies indicate they expect to increase capital spending in the next few years.

A report from staffing company ManpowerGroup estimates a net 10% of Midwest employers plan to hire in the first quarter, after factoring in companies that will cut jobs. That figure is the strongest result for the region since the third quarter of 2008, and slightly surpasses the national forecast of 9%. “With the global economy continuing to expand and the automotive industry yet to see more gains, there’s medium-term sustainability to this trend,” says William Testa, director of regional research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, of the Midwest hiring outlook.

Fiscal Times (01/21/12)

For many in the nation’s work force, compensation remains flat, bonuses are smaller or nonexistent, and perks are being cut. With unemployment at 8.5% and competition for jobs fierce, most workers are staying put. An option growing in popularity is outsourcing work to contractors and avoiding employee benefits entirely. A survey from ASA corporate partner CareerBuilder found that 35% of U.S. companies have smaller staffs than before the recession, and many are turning to staffing and recruiting companies to fill in the gap.

Law Technology News (01/20/12) Evan Koblentz

Hudson Legal, a division of staffing firm Hudson Highland Group that sells document review and legal staffing services, is expanding into legal technology consulting. The revised group will be treated as its own business unit, says Mark Yacano, executive vice president and global e-discovery team leader. “They will do traditional project management [and] they will also begin to be more consultative in nature,” he adds.

Hudson Legal recently hired Leah Guggenheimer as senior vice president of e-discovery services. Guggenheimer’s position has been open for the past year, says Yacano. “We’ve made the strategic decision that project management is sort of the lynchpin to our forward strategy. … We’ve been taking our time looking.”

New York Times (01/23/12) Steven Greenhouse

Employers are increasingly turning to lockouts to press their unionized workers to grant concessions after contract negotiations deadlock. “This is a sign of increased employer militancy,” says Gary Chaison, a professor of industrial relations at Clark University. “Lockouts were once so rare they were almost unheard of. Now, not only are employers increasingly on the offensive and trying to call the shots in bargaining, but they’re backing that up with action—in the form of lockouts.”

The number of strikes has declined to just one-sixth the annual level of two decades ago, largely because labor unions’ ranks have declined and because many workers worry that if they strike they will lose pay and might also lose their jobs to permanent replacement workers. Lockouts, meanwhile, have grown to represent a record percentage of the nation’s work stoppages, according to Bloomberg BNA. In 2011, at least 17 employers imposed lockouts, telling their workers not to show up until they were willing to accept management’s contract offer.

Wall Street Journal Online (01/22/12) Simon Constable

Should the housing market continue to shows signs of rebounding , Barry Ritholtz—head of research and asset-management company FusionIQ— says savvy investors will be looking to companies that will prosper from an improved labor market, such as staffing firm Robert Half International, payroll processor ADP, and jobs-listing service Monster Worldwide.

Milwaukee Business Journal (01/20/12) Rich Rovito

ManpowerGroup chairman and chief executive Jeff Joerres has responded to a Financial Times, column’s chastisement of the firm for describing itself as a company that “creates unique time to value through a comprehensive suite of innovative solutions that help clients win in the Human Age.” In awarding her annual jargon honors, Lucy Kellaway gave ManpowerGroup the Golden Flannel Award for the description. Joerres says he “appreciated” the column but defends the Human Age concept, stating that “if that was the only comment that we had on the Human Age, I’d take it pretty hard. But when it’s on the cover of The Economist that this may be the era of humans two months after we introduced it, that’s not too bad.”

ManpowerGroup management has been touting the Human Age concept, in which it believes people are the real agents of business success. The Human Age concept has “framed up” discussions in the world of work, according to Joerres.