American Staffing Association (11/07/14) Cynthia Poole

Staffing firms created 15,100 new jobs in October, up 0.5% from September and 8.8% from October 2013, according to seasonally adjusted data released today by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Year-to-year growth is nearing the 9% rate recorded at the beginning of this year—averaging 8.7% over the past 12 months.

Nonseasonally adjusted BLS data, which estimate the actual number of jobs in the economy, indicated that temporary help employment increased 1.6% from September and 8.3% from the same month last year.

“Although the pace of labor market recovery has been slow and uneven in the five years and four months since the end of the Great Recession, the story is that companies are now consistently adding jobs across most sectors,” said Richard Wahlquist, president and chief executive officer of the American Staffing Association. “Staffing firms report they expect to see continued hiring of temporary and contract employees, as well as permanent placements in the year ahead.”

Business Wire (11/06/2014)

ZeroChaos, a global workforce solutions company headquartered in Orlando, FL, has announced the strategic acquisition of the staffing business of Incepture, a staffing and print services affiliate of Jacksonville, FL-based GuideWell Mutual Holding Corp., the parent company of Florida Blue. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

NFIB News Release (11/06/14)

There was no net gain in small-business hiring in October, according to a survey of 1,502 small firms by the National Federation of Independent Business. Roughly equal numbers of employees were hired and cut by small-business owners, resulting in a seasonally adjusted net gain of zero employees per business.

“Labor markets, although improved, are still sloshy,” says William Dunkelberg, chief economist for NFIB. “Basically there’s no clear direction among small employers.”