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BLS: Staffing Jobs Hold Steady in December

American Staffing Association (01/04/13) Alexandra Karaer

Seasonally adjusted employment data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that staffing employment showed no change from November to December. In a year-to-year comparison, temporary help employment for the month was 6.4% higher than in December 2011. Over the previous 12 months, the temporary help industry has added an average of 12,800 jobs per month to the economy.

“BLS estimates that staffing firms created more than 150,000 new jobs in 2012 as businesses continued to strategically embrace flexible work force solutions to increase productivity and competiveness,” says Richard Wahlquist, president and chief executive officer of the American Staffing Association. “Although temporary and contract employment represents just under 2% of total employment, staffing firms accounted for 8% of all of new jobs created in 2012.”

Nonseasonally adjusted BLS data, which estimate the actual number of jobs in the economy, indicated that staffing industry employment declined by 33,500 from November to December (down 1.3%, versus an average 1.0% drop since 1990). On a year-to-year basis, there were 4.6% more staffing employees in December than in the same month in 2011.