Forbes (05/10/12) Mary Ellen Biery

Privately owned temporary help services and job placement companies are seeing strong sales growth, and net profit margins have recovered to pre-recession levels, according to a recent financial statement analysis by Sageworks Inc. Employment services firms have enjoyed nearly 21% sales growth over the past year, following 21% to 22% increases in both 2010 and 2011. Net profit margins, meanwhile, have more than doubled from 2009, with margins topping 5% over the last 12 months, compared with about 4% in 2006 and 2007.

Sageworks analyst Robb Granado says the strong growth in employment services sales is not surprising, considering firms will often use placement firms to hire temporary help if they want a hedge on the investment of a permanent worker, or if they need stop-gap help until they can find qualified permanent help.

PRLog (05/11/12)

The staffing firm Brooks Personnel Inc., of Voorhees, NJ, has been acquired by Perry Resources Inc. of Marlton, NJ. Brooks Personnel founder Wendy Brooks will continue with the combined company in a consultative role.

Seattle Times (05/10/12) Amy Martinez; Hal Bernton

More than 50 people participated in a rally Thursday outside Amazon’s Seattle headquarters. The participants hope to draw attention to working conditions at the company’s warehouses. Former employees say that at some warehouses in Pennsylvania and Kentucky workers have collapsed in the heat or been fired after being injured. Labor group Working Washington organized the rally and has crafted an Amazon.com warehouse-workers bill of rights. The document asks the company to stop using temporary firms and “recognize that freedom of association and collective bargaining are an essential ingredient for a productive work force.”

San Antonio Business Journal (05/10/12) James Aldridge

The 2012 Inner City 100, sponsored by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City and Fortune, lists InGenesis Inc. of San Antonio, TX, as the fifth-fastest growing inner-city firm in the nation. The company, which provides health care staff to military, federal, and state government facilities worldwide, employs 1,000 people in 40 states and Washington, DC.

Richmond Times-Dispatch (Virginia) (05/11/12) John Reid Blackwell

Staffing firm Astyra Corp. is one of the country’s fastest-growing inner-city small companies, according to the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City and Fortune. The company ranks No. 29 on the 2012 Inner City 100. Astyra chief executive officer Kenneth Ampy says the company’s growth is due partly to more businesses using staffing services coming out of the economic downturn.

Washington Post (05/11/12) Michael A. Fletcher

In the coming days, California, Texas, Pennsylvania, Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, Colorado, and Connecticut will see a reduction in the maximum unemployment benefit period, which will leave more than 230,000 Americans without unemployment insurance. The National Employment Law Project says the latest reduction brings the total number of long-term unemployed who have lost federal extended unemployment benefits this year to 400,000 individuals in 27 states. According to NELP executive director Christine Owens, “These cuts are coming faster than the economy is improving, which means more workers will have to survive without any jobless assistance, and families will have less money to put back into the economy.”

Reuters (05/10/12)

The decrease in jobless claims announced Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor has allayed fears that the labor market was weakening after weak employment growth in April. The DOL news, together with another report showing a surge in U.S. exports to a record high and an increase in imports, indicates the economy remains on a moderate growth path. “With imports for everything surging, it is hard to argue that the economy is softening,” says Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors.