Staffing edges down in first quarter
Published May 28, 2008 by CSBJ Staff
Staffing industry employment fell 1.7 percent in the first quarter of 2008 compared to the same period last year, according to the American Staffing Association.
Based on its latest quarterly survey, the ASA showed the country’s staffing companies employed an average of 2.8 million temporary and contract workers per day from January through March – down 48,000 jobs from first quarter 2007.
That’s a second consecutive quarter of year-to-year declines and only the fourth time since 2002, as the economy was recovering from the 2001 recession that quarterly staffing employment has decreased.
Previous declines occurred in the fourth quarter of 2006, the first quarter of 2007 and the fourth quarter of 2007.
U.S. sales of temporary and contract staffing totaled $17.7 billion in the first quarter of this year, an increase of 1.5 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year and a new first quarter record.
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