Chicago Sun-Times (06/09/12) Francine Knowles

Chicago area staffing companies report they have seen large increases in business this year despite the recent May national unemployment report showing disappointingly weak overall job growth. The LaSalle Network, based in Chicago, says it saw a 55% jump in revenues in May from a year earlier, and business is up 47% for the first five months of this year, compared with the same time in 2011.

“We are extremely busy,” says Anne Edmunds, regional director of ManpowerGroup in Chicago. “We’re up about 25% over [the] prior year in staffing requirements. We had a big bounce in January, February, slowed down a little bit in April, and then we saw a huge increase at the beginning of May. It seems to be continuing at the start of June. Most of these temporary positions that we’re seeing are six months in length or better. It’s not like it’s short-term one week, a few days.”