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Sector Sales: Help ASA Get the Data You Want

ASA invites all U.S. staffing firms to participate in the quarterly Staffing Employment and Sales Survey. There are no fees to participate, and staffing firms that complete the survey receive an exclusive report on the results, which includes payroll data available nowhere else.

For the first time, ASA will begin tracking temporary and contract staffing sales and gross margin data by sector. Survey participants are asked to provide data for all of the sectors in which their firm operates, including

  • Office/clerical and administrative support
  • Industrial
  • Health care
  • Information technology
  • Engineering
  • Scientific
  • Accounting/finance
  • Management (including executives)
  • Sales/marketing
  • Legal
  • Other professional

The information collected by this survey provides data essential to the association’s legal and legislative advocacy efforts on behalf of the staffing industry. Register to take the survey or view a PDF version of the questionnaire at americanstaffing.net. This survey is conducted by ASA research partner Inavero.

Lockheed Begins Hiring ‘Temporary’ Workers to Fill in for Strikers

Fort Worth Star-Telegram (05/24/12) Bob Cox

In the midst of a strike, Lockheed Martin says it will hire temporary employees to fill aircraft production jobs. Company spokesperson Joe Stout says temporary employees will be added incrementally each week as needed until the strikers return to work. The aerospace industry typically has many skilled employees available through temporary staffing firms.

More Small Businesses Had Hiring Plans in 1Q—Capital One

Dow Jones Newswires (05/24/12) Kristin Jones

Many small businesses plan to hire more people, according to a Capital One Small Business Barometer survey for the first quarter of 2012. Small businesses are showing signs of recovery after a difficult 2011, the survey reports, with many reporting increased liquidity and saying they plan to invest in growth. Approximately 15% of the small businesses across the country said they have job openings they are unable to fill. Companies serving the government, utilities, and mining sectors are most likely to have job openings they cannot fill. Roughly 34% of small businesses plan to hire more employees over the next six months, compared with 27% last quarter and 30% in the year-ago quarter.

New Gauge Shows U.S. Factory Growth Slowing

Wall Street Journal Online (05/24/12) Kathleen Madigan

A new “flash” purchasing managers’ index (PMI) compiled by data provider Markit reportedly dropped to 53.9 in May from 56.0 in April, meaning the index is the lowest since February. Markit has been reporting PMIs for other national economies, but it has recently added the U.S. In May, the PMI subindexes covering output, orders, and employment remained above 50, meaning expansion, but they slowed.

Markit says the U.S. flash index has results from 85% to 90% of its full survey panel of over 600 companies. U.S. economy-watchers have so far paid more attention to the PMIs reported by the Institute for Supply Management.

Free ASAPro Webinar Thursday—Hiring Military Veterans

May is National Military Appreciation Month and ASA wants to remind you that hiring veterans and transitioning military service members makes good business sense. ASA encourages all its members to help U.S. military veterans find employment, but that can be easier said than done.

A study by the Apollo Research Institute aims to assist businesses with helping veterans transition from the military to the civilian work force. During the ASAPro Webinar “Hiring Heroes: Transitioning From the Military to the Civilian Work Force–Research Findings of the Apollo Research Institute,” Thursday, May 31, 3–4 p.m. Eastern time, a panel of experts convened by the institute will review findings from the study and discuss topics related to hiring military veterans.

ASAPro Webinars are free for ASA members ($295 for nonmembers) and qualify for continuing education hours toward ASA certification renewal. Register online at americanstaffing.net.

Staffing Today Returns May 29

In observance of Memorial Day, Staffing Today will not be delivered Monday, May 28.

N.J. Assembly Votes to Increase Minimum Wage to $8.50

NJ.com (05/24/12) Salvador Rizzo

The New Jersey Assembly has voted to increase the state’s minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $8.50 an hour. The wage floor also would annually automatically increase based on the Consumer Price Index. Business groups are concerned the increase will hurt job growth.

How to Earn an ‘A’ in Family Leave: Do You Make the Grade?

HR.BLR.com (05/21/12) Susan Schoenfeld

A new report by the National Partnership for Women and Families gives over 60% of states a “D” or “F” in terms of family leave laws, paid leave, job protected leave, and other family-friendly workplace laws geared toward new parents. Only California and Connecticut were given grades of “A-.” Meanwhile, the report indicates that federal laws also are insufficient, with the U.S. failing to provide guaranteed paid leave for new parents while 178 nations do so for new mothers and 54 nations offer such benefits to new fathers.

CareerBuilder Finds Staffing Firms the Best Job-Seeking Method

Recruiter (United Kingdom) (05/24/12)

Staffing firms are the most effective way for job seekers to find employment—but only 3% of candidates seek them out as their first source for job hunting, according to the results of a new survey by ASA corporate partners CareerBuilder and Inavero. Speaking at the International Confederation of Private Employment Agencies’ World Employment Conference in London, CareerBuilder’s Eric Gilpin called on staffing firms to take advantage of “the huge opportunities” to increase awareness of their brand and services to attract job seekers to their doors. “You’re not where they start [their job search]—but you are the most effective,” said Gilpin, president of CareerBuilder’s staffing and recruiting group. Candidates who engage with staffing firms get 45% more interviews than those who do not, he noted.

Analysis: Some Workers on the Move Again, but Most Stuck

Reuters (05/24/12)

Job opportunities in the U.S. are plentiful for those with skills in hot demand, but for most Americans, the country’s once-mobile labor market is steadily becoming more static, according to recent studies. “In the early 1990s about 3% of Americans moved between states each year. Today that rate has fallen in half,” Greg Kaplan, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania, and Sam Schulhofer-Wohl, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, wrote in a recent study. The plunge in housing prices has discouraged people from moving to find work, according to a recent study by economist Plamen Nenov at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

However, companies are hiring, and in many states, housing prices are showing tentative signs of recovery. “People are now starting to feel more confident and have a little bit more flexibility,” says Joanie Ruge, chief employment analyst for the U.S. arm of staffing group Randstad. She notes that companies are more likely than in recent years to sweeten job offers with relocation packages for skilled workers, especially in states with booming energy or technology sectors, such as Texas and California.

Summer Hiring Heats Up for Teens, College Students

Fox Business (05/23/12) Kathryn Tuggle

The number of employers hiring summer workers is expected to rise to 29% this year from 22% during the 2008-11 period, according to CareerBuilder, an ASA corporate partner. The job market remains competitive, with Brent Rasmussen, president of CareerBuilder North America, noting, “High school students are not only competing with college students for summer positions, they’re also competing with very seasoned workers who are looking for a way to get their foot in the door and transition to full-time, permanent employment.” Rasmussen says production line associates, warehouse assistants, sales clerks, customer service representatives, finance interns, engineers, and information technology specialists are among the jobs available this year.

Mobile Recruiters See Increasing Hiring Demand

Wanted Analytics (05/24/12) Abby Lombardi

Recruiting through mobile and text is expected to grow this year. In April, more than 200 recruiting jobs advertised online included mobile aspects in the job descriptions. Some jobs required recruiting professionals to recruit via mobile phone, while other jobs sought recruiting professionals to develop or maintain a mobile-friendly online career center for applicants. The number of companies looking for recruiters with these skills is growing faster than the number of candidates with the skills.