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The staffing industry led overall job growth in the U.S. economy during November, adding nearly 40,000 new jobs. Seasonally adjusted staffing employment rose 1.8% from October and was 19.2% higher than November of last year, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. BLS noted its data show that the staffing industry has added 494,000 new jobs over the past 14 months since resuming growth in October 2009.

"While there was little holiday cheer in the jobs report, the news continues to be more upbeat for staffing firms and the millions of people they place and employ every day," says Richard Wahlquist, ASA president and chief executive officer. "The sustained increased in demand for temporary help over the past year clearly shows that the economy is moving in the right direction; just not fast enough. ASA members expect to see more businesses increase the size of their flexible and permanent talent pools in the year ahead."

Nonseasonally adjusted BLS data, which estimate the actual number of jobs in the economy, indicated that staffing employment grew 1.3% from October to November. On a year-to-year basis, there were 18.1% more workers employed in November compared with the same month last year. The ASA Staffing Index, which is also not seasonally adjusted and therefore is comparable to the nonadjusted employment figures reported by BLS, also indicated an 18% increase in staffing payrolls since last November.

BLS also provides employment estimates for search and placement firms, but those are nonseasonal only and lag one month. On Friday, BLS reported that search and placement employment in October rose 2.0% from September to October, totaling 242,200 for the month. In a year-to year comparison, October employment was up 6.7% from the same month last year, continuing the trend of year-to-year employment growth in search and placement that began last spring.

Total U.S. nonfarm payroll employment showed little change from October to November, increasing by 39,000 new jobs on net. Most of the new jobs created were concentrated in the staffing and health care industries. Notable job losses were reported in the retail sales and manufacturing sectors, which reported declines of 28,000 and 13,000 respectively. The unemployment rate for the national economy edged up to 9.8% from its previous level of 9.6%.

Last week, the business cycle dating committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research officially announced that the most recent economic recession in the U.S. ended in June 2009. The committee, considered to be the official authority on U.S. economic cycles, determined only that business activity troughed and a recovery began in July of last year; it did not conclude that the economic climate in the U.S. has improved markedly or that the economy has returned to functioning at normal capacity.

The ASA Staffing Index, which measures the percentage change in weekly staffing employment, troughed in the week of June 29, 2009, and has grown virtually nonstop since. ASA research has shown that staffing job trends serve as a coincident economic indicator, especially when the economy is emerging from a recession. The recent announcement by the NBER regarding the end of the recent recession corroborates what the ASA Staffing Index suggested more than a year ago.

Since the end of June 2009, the Index has grown 37%, suggesting that staffing employment has increased by this percentage after losing 1.14 million jobs during the 2007-2009 recession. The ASA Staffing Employment and Sales Survey, which collects information on industry employment and sales, has revealed that industry revenue was 33% higher in the second quarter of 2010 than in the second quarter of 2009. The staffing industry appears well on its way to a double-digit recovery--similar to that experienced after the prior three recessions.

But why is nonfarm employment growth, which typically lags increases in staffing employment by six months, not exhibiting the same robust job increases that staffing firms are reporting? Although the recession may be over, many economists are concerned that the profound damage to the economy and the way businesses view permanent hiring may result in high unemployment for the foreseeable future.

Read more about recent economic trends and what they mean for the staffing industry, in the current year and beyond, in American Staffing 2010: Turning Point. The report includes 15 charts that illustrate staffing employment and sales trends, as well as data on how staffing benefits employees, staffing clients, and the economy. The report is available online at americanstaffing.net and is the cover story of a special issue of Staffing Success magazine, in the mail to ASA members this week.

U.S. staffing companies reported strong growth in the number of temporary workers employed in the second quarter of this year, compared with the same period last year, according to survey data released today by the American Staffing Association.

America's staffing companies employed an average of 2.4 million temporary and contract workers per day from April through June. That's an increase of 23.3% from the same quarter last year and an improvement of 18.0% over staffing employment reported for first quarter of 2010.

"Even as the pace of economic growth slowed, staffing firms added 360,000 new jobs during the second quarter," says ASA president and chief executive officer Richard Wahlquist. "This is an encouraging sign that there is still some juice left in this recovery and that businesses across a wide spectrum of sectors continue to experience a slow but sustained uptick in demand for their products and services."

Staffing sales in the second quarter of this year totaled $16.9 billion, according to ASA survey results--a 32.8% increase over the same period last year. This is the largest year-to-year percentage increase recorded since ASA began tracking industry sales on a quarterly basis in 1992.

According to a study put out by the University of Florida, Gainsville, workers hired by temp help agencies earn higher hourly wages and are better educated than permanent employees. In addition, the study found that this group moves quickly between temporary and regular jobs, dispelling the idea that they are "stuck" in a secondary labor market.

Sarah Hamersma, a UF economist and lead author stated, "Employees earned more per hour in temporary jobs than traditional ones, receiving about 15 percent more pay." While other studies have focused on quarterly earnings of temporary workers, which are lower than those for permanent employees, the UF study also analyzed hourly wages, and found these to be higher for temp workers, she said.

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