Tuesday, April 27, 2010

ASA Staffing Index Continues to Improve; Temp Hiring is A Leading Indicator of Future Job Growth

"Staffing employment in April is 19% higher than in the same month last year, according to the ASA Staffing Index released today. The index for April is 86, up from 83 for March, suggesting that staffing employment has increased almost 4% over the past month. With the exception of the payroll period that included the Easter holiday, staffing employment has shown steady growth over the past 10 weeks."

MP: The chart above is based on the ASA's weekly staffing index, which reached an 18-week high during the week of April 12, and has increased by 19.4% over the last year. This most recent weekly gain marks the ninth week in-a-row of double digit increases from the same week in the previous year.

Temporary help employment tracked by ASA is considered to be an accurate leading indicator of employment trends. According to the ASA, temporary job increases typically lead gains in broader employment growth by three months when the economy is emerging from a recession, and the continuing strength in temporary hiring signals future employment growth for the U.S. economy.

5 Comments:

At 4/27/2010 5:22 PM, Anonymous morganovich said...

the actual staffing level is still way down from 2008, which was not a particularly strong time for employment for so late in an economic cycle.

the index was 100 in april 2008. that means it's still down 14% since then.

http://www.americanstaffing.net/statistics/historical_data.cfm

those % change figures are very misleading. it's the absolute level that matters.

there is no reading on this index as low as 86 before late 2008 once the financial crisis was really rolling. the index is currently at a level similar to november-december 2008, hardly an excellent period for jobs...

 
At 4/27/2010 6:59 PM, Anonymous Benny The said...

Jobs lag, Morganovich. You know that.

 
At 4/27/2010 7:57 PM, Anonymous morganovich said...

not this much benny.

this is a very shallow recovery.

 
At 4/27/2010 9:35 PM, Blogger juandos said...

From NRO: Economic Recovery? The Signs Aren’t There in My Neck of the Woods

 
At 4/28/2010 6:01 PM, Blogger sethstorm said...

...or it is a feature of high unemployment. How long does it take before it isn't seen as a sign of growth as much as it is a way to get around employment?

Unlike Europe, we're a bit more willing to kill off permatemping if enough people are in that boat(versus just dealing w/ it). At some point, something will be done to kill the disposability - a matter of when, not if.

 

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