BBSI News Release (02/03/2015)

Barrett Business Services Inc. reported net revenues of $175 million in the fourth quarter of 2014, up 21% from $144.5 million in the year-ago quarter. Net income totaled $7 million, up 27% from $5.6 million on a year-to-year basis. Staffing revenues totaled $45.3 million in the fourth quarter, up 22% from $37.1 million in the year-ago quarter.

For all of 2014, net revenues totaled $636.2 million, up 19% from $532.8 million in 2013. The company reported a net loss of $27.1 million, compared with net income of $17.9 million in the prior year. Staffing revenues totaled $165.8 million for the year, up 15% from $143.9 million in 2013.

Conference Board News Release (02/04/15)

Online advertised vacancies rose 150,400 to 5.3 million in January, according to the Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine Data Series. The December supply and demand rate stands at 1.70 unemployed for each advertised vacancy, with a total of 3.6 million more unemployed workers than the number of advertised vacancies. The number of unemployed was 8.7 million in December.

“Online labor demand begins 2015 with a large gain, suggesting that labor markets are continuing to improve,” says Gad Levanon, managing director, macroeconomic and labor market research. “In January, all large states and [metropolitan statistical areas] showed solid growth with the increase spread across the major occupational categories.”

In January, the professional category saw strong gains in management (14,000), business and finance (12,400), and health care (11,800). The services and production category saw large gains in sales (21,300), office and administration (29,200), and transportation (27,200).

Wall Street Journal (02/04/15) Kathleen Madigan

Business hiring was solid in January, but the pace was slower than expected, according to an employment survey by Automatic Data Processing and Moody’s Analytics. Private payrolls rose by 213,000 jobs in January. Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal had forecast an increase of 240,000 new jobs. The December number was revised up to 253,000 from 241,000.

Companies employing between one and 49 employees added 78,000 new employees in January. Medium-size businesses with payrolls of 50-499 employees hired 95,000 employees. Large firms with 500 or more employees hired 40,000 employees.

Service-sector payrolls rose by 183,000 jobs last month. Manufacturing companies added 14,000 jobs, and construction firms added 18,000 jobs.

Reuters (02/03/15) Lucia Mutikani

U.S. factory orders declined for the fifth consecutive month in December, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, but the outlook for business spending plans suggests there could be a rebound in the coming months. New orders for factory goods fell 3.4% as demand declined across a range of industries. That followed a 1.7% pullback in November and was higher than economists’ forecast of a 2.2% decrease.

However, orders for nondefense capital goods excluding aircraft fell just 0.1% rather than the 0.6% decline reported last month. Shipments of such goods were upwardly revised to a 0.2% gain in December instead of a 0.2% fall.