Seasonally adjusted employment data released this morning by the
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicated that staffing industry
employment dipped slightly, shedding 7,500 jobs (down 0.3%) from
February to March. In a year-to-year comparison, temporary help
employment for the month was 8.0% higher than in March 2011.

U.S. nonfarm payroll employment in March grew at about half the
rate of that noted in February, adding 120,000 new jobs to the
economy. Most of the employment growth continued to be driven by
new job creation in the private sector.

“For the most part, staffing firms continued to see healthy
demand in March, as was reflected by the nonseasonally adjusted
BLS employment numbers,” says Richard Wahlquist, president
and chief executive officer of the American Staffing Association.
“In the current environment, businesses are understandably
cautious about when and how to add additional flexible and
permanent staff.”

Nonseasonally adjusted BLS data, which estimate the actual number
of jobs in the economy, indicated that the staffing industry
added 29,400 jobs (up 1.2%) from February to March. On a
year-to-year basis, there were 8.5% more staffing employees in
March compared with the same month in 2011.