PR Newswire (10/22/13)

Robert Half International Inc. reported revenues of $1.08 billion for the third quarter of 2013, up 4.9% from $1.03 billion during the third quarter of 2012. The company also reported net income of $66.4 million, up 15.1% from $57.7 million in the year-ago quarter. Its U.S. staffing revenue increased by 4% on a same-day, constant currency, year-to-year basis.

The company reported revenues of $378.1 million for its Accountemps segment, down 0.8% from $381.3 million; $208.4 million for OfficeTeam, up 2.6% from $203.2 million; $135.3 million for Robert Half Technology, up 11.8% from $121 million; $126.1 million for Management Resources, down 0.2% from $126.4 million; $88.2 million for Robert Half Finance & Accounting, up 7.8% from $81.8 million; and $139 million for Protiviti, up 16.3% from $119.5 million.

Mastech Holdings News Release (10/23/13)

Mastech Holdings Inc. reported revenues of $28.3 million for the third quarter of 2013, up 24% from $22.8 million in the third quarter of 2012. The company’s net income totaled $1.5 million, up 149.6% from $601,000 in the year-ago quarter.

SeatonCorp News Release (10/22/2013)

Seaton has reported a third quarter revenue increase of 19% year-to-year, to $136 million. The company also delivered strong earnings growth, recording a 27% year-over-year increase in the third quarter. The PeopleScout division had a particularly strong quarter, delivering top line growth of 32%.

PR Newswire (10/22/13)

Atlanta-based temporary staffing firm EmployBridge has acquired certain branches of staffing firm Employment Plus. EmployBridge’s branch locations will increase from 177 to more than 235.

Wall Street Journal (10/22/13) Brenda Cronin

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, staffing firms provided 20,000 of the 148,000 jobs created in September. The industry now has as large a share of all U.S. jobs as it had in early 2000. In April 2000, temporary work accounted for 2.03% of all seasonally adjusted nonfarm payroll positions; this dropped to 1.34% in mid-2009, but has just returned to just under 2.02%. However, businesses are slowing their pace of temporary hiring. “Every business I know is operating at a higher level of efficiency postrecession than prerecession,” says Richard Wahlquist, chief executive of the American Staffing Association. “American businesses just have not had a sufficient increase in demand for products and services to add big numbers of workers.”

The double-digit growth staffing firms experienced early in the recovery has slowed. According to Wahlquist, “It’s still slowing down in 2013, but our data indicate growth nonetheless.” He says the industry allows workers and employers to get to know each other before making a commitment. The thinking among businesses is “let these people audition for me, let us audition for them and maybe after three to six months, we’ll find that this is a good match.”

Wall Street Journal (10/22/13) Ben Casselman

Part-time employment accounted for 19% of employment in September, up from 17% prior to the recession. However, experts say the gain occurred during the recession and cannot be blamed on the Affordable Care Act. The U.S. Department of Labor reports a jump in full-time employment of 1.6 million during the past year, compared with a decrease in part-time employment of close to 300,000. The report counts those who work less than 35 hours per week as part-time, whereas part-time is defined by the ACA as less than 30 hours, so many of the workers in DOL’s report would be deemed full-time under the ACA and subject to the employer mandate.

There is little evidence that employers are reducing hours to skirt the ACA’s requirements, as the share of employees working 30 to 34 hours per week at their main job increased slightly in the past year while the share of those working fewer than 30 hours per week decreased slightly. For now, the ACA is not the reason more Americans are working fewer hours, but employers could adjust their hiring practices before the employer mandate is implemented in 2015.