U.S. staffing companies employed an average of 2.1 million temporary and contract workers per week in the third quarter of 2024, a decline of 38,000 jobs from the previous quarter, according to data released today by the American Staffing Association.

Staffing employment continued to feel the effects of a cooling labor market, and the association’s quarterly Staffing Employment and Sales Survey indicated that the average weekly number of temporary and contract workers in the field in the third quarter contracted by 1.8% from the second quarter and 11.7% on a year-to-year basis. Staffing employment has declined for seven consecutive quarters.

Temporary and contract staffing sales totaled $30.7 billion in the third quarter of 2024, a 0.7% decline from the previous quarter and an 11.4% decline from the third quarter of the previous year. As in 2023, this contraction again bucks the seasonal trend of consistent sequential growth within most of the staffing industry from the second to fourth quarters.

Nevertheless, private staffing companies expect their 1Q25 revenue to increase a median of 5.0% year-to-year, with larger companies ($100 million in sales or higher) expecting a median projection of 2.0%.

“Following the postpandemic hiring spree in 2021 and 2022, businesses found themselves with full and overflowing talent benches. Then, in the face of growing macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty, employers hit the pause button on hiring, dampening staffing industry sales and employment,” said ASA chief executive officer Richard Wahlquist. “However, the staffing industry is looking forward to a return to growth in 2025 as conditions normalize and increases in labor market demand begin to spread across more than just a handful of industry sectors. In 2025 the staffing industry will continue doing what it does best—putting Americans to work.”