COLUMBUS, Ohio – An article in the November issue of Columbus Business First magazine focused on how the ailing economy has affected staffing firms.
Robin Marsh, senior vice president of Acloché HR, told the magazine that while Acloché did see a significant drop in business, things are starting to turn around.
“As a staffing company, we are a leading indicator for the broader economy and contingent or temporary staff are usually the first to exit during a downturn, despite the fact that the cost of temporary staff is significantly lower and provides much less financial liability to employers than the cost of regular staff,” Marsh said. “As the economy picks up, temporary associates are the first people returned to work – it’s cyclical.”
The recent economic recession has prevented staffing employment growth that normally occurs during the course of the year, according to the American Staffing Association. Staffing companies employed an average of 1.9 million temporary and contract workers per day from April through June—3.5 percent lower than in the first quarter of 2009 and 30.2 percent lower than in the second quarter of 2008.
While this is the seventh consecutive quarter of year-to-year employment declines, the massive quarter-to-quarter job losses of last year have markedly slowed, the ASA reported.
“While staffing employment dropped nearly a third from a year ago, U.S. staffing firms are still putting some two million people to work every day,” says Richard Wahlquist, ASA president and chief executive officer. “We have seen an uptick in staffing employment since early July,” he says, “and we expect that staffing firms will see increases in demand as the economy recovers.”
Marsh told Business First that Acloché has seen an increase in business.
“Employment typically lags 6-9 months behind the economy so as we continue to see recovery we feel some optimism,” Marsh said.
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