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“Could a short-staffed federal government seek to employ more temporary workers on a mission-specific, contractual basis? It would largely depend on the ability for such workers to reduce skill gaps that impede the government from fulfilling its basic duties.
One of President Donald Trump’s signature campaign promises has been reducing the federal workforce to improve government efficiency. Since the beginning of his second administration, the president and his senior advisers, including Elon Musk, administrator for the Department of Government Efficiency, and Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, have enacted an aggressive campaign to cull the number of federal workers through transfers, buyouts, and layoffs. Although the legality of these efforts remains in question for the courts, reports suggest nearly 300,000 employees, or 10% of the federal workforce, have resigned or been forcefully terminated.
But without corresponding legislative or regulatory changes that address the need for hiring these workers in the first place, the federal government is likely to be short-staffed while expected to maintain its current obligations. This would pose a unique opportunity for temporary workers and staffing agencies to step in and mitigate personnel shortages in the federal workforce. Could a short-staffed federal government seek to employ more temporary workers on a mission-specific, contractual basis? It would largely depend on the ability for such workers to reduce skill gaps that impede the government from fulfilling its basic duties.
According to data from the Office of Personnel Management, the duties of more than 60% of all federal workers can be broadly categorized into one of seven occupations shown in the chart below. When compared to estimates of temporary workers in these occupations developed by the ASA research department, it seems some skill gaps could be readily filled by staffing agencies. For example, for each federal employee within a position requiring skills in health care or engineering, approximately one temporary worker could step into that employee’s shoes. Conversely, very few temporary workers could step into the shoes of federal employees within the legal field, suggesting highly lucrative potential opportunities for staffing agencies with legal talent.
However, these incongruities make another critical point: Staffing agencies seeking to bridge skill gaps in the federal workforce will have to add talent to their rosters, especially in high-skilled occupations such as legal, social sciences, and investigative services. This could allow former federal employees to be gainfully employed once again but at a limited capacity or provide opportunities for private-sector experts. In other words, staffing agencies could be a critical tool for the federal government to survive its ongoing personnel diet with limited burnout.
Developing hiring rate benchmarks by region and industry can help companies gauge how their performance stacked up in what was a challenging year.
The latest hiring rate numbers from LinkedIn show that hiring stabilized throughout 2024. The rate, which represents the number of hires divided by LinkedIn membership, grew 4.9% from November to December 2024 but trailed the December 2023 reading by 5.1%. Despite the year-to-year decline, hiring only declined 3% from January through December 2024. This is well below the 12% decline observed from January through December 2023, consistent with a labor market that spent 2024 in a holding pattern amid high interest rates.
Month-to-month, 19 out of 20 of the metropolitan areas LinkedIn tracks saw hiring growth, with Philadelphia being the lone metro seeing a decline (-0.7%). Denver (9.3%), Atlanta (8.1%), and Washington, DC (7.0%) saw the greatest hiring gains from November to December 2024. Year-to-year, the San Francisco Bay area was the only metro to see growth—to the tune of a meager 0.3%. New York City (-1.5%) and Atlanta (-2.3%) experienced the smallest declines in hiring growth.
Hiring grew sequentially in most industries, with hiring rates increasing from November to December 2024 in 18 of 20 industry categories. Technology, information, and media (11.7%), wholesale (8.5%), and financial services (7.0%) grew the most, while hiring slowed in consumer services (-0.7%) and farming, ranching, and forestry (-6.1%). Year-to-year, hiring only increased in technology, information, and media (4.9%) and financial services (3.9%).
These data confirm what staffing companies experienced in 2024—a plateauing labor market. Developing hiring rate benchmarks by region and industry can help companies gauge how their performance stacked up in what was a challenging year.
