With another full year of data, it is clear that staffing employment is making a comeback.
Weekly Economic Outlook
01/14/2025
A Spring Thaw Is Ahead for Staffing
Last Friday’s jobs report contained a particularly exciting data point for the staffing industry: Over the past two months, employment within temporary help services rose. Two months of consecutive growth may not seem like much, but the last time the industry hit this benchmark was March of 2022, just before the peak of the Great Resignation. Staffing employment has largely benefited from appreciating conditions within the labor market, including lower, though hardly optimal, labor costs. Other contributing factors: higher (though hardly optimal) labor churn and improved macroeconomic dynamics, such as stable growth, lower inflation, and modest levels of economic uncertainty.
With another full year of data, it is clear that staffing employment is making a comeback. Between 2022 and 2023, staffing employment posted significant declines due to overhiring as well as deteriorating conditions in the labor market. Between 2023 and 2024, staffing employment continued to decline as the labor market failed to realize relief until the latter half of last year. Now, staffing employment is rising, but it is early in the race. Interest rates have just begun to permeate the labor market. Employers are creating jobs but remain hesitant to fill them. Economic growth remains healthy, but risks are accumulating which could suggest increased instability within the new year.
Alongside an uncertain outlook with respect to further disinflation and the Fed’s monetary policy response, this means that staffing employment will likely face more headwinds when returning to normal in 2025. Rather than growing significantly in a short period of time, or uniformly across different economic sectors, continued recovery within staffing employment is likely to be a bit uneven, much like current conditions in the economy overall. But so long as labor costs continue to trend downward and labor churn continues to rise, 2025 may see staffing employment make further progress toward a rebound.
Average Change in U.S. Staffing Employment, 2021–2024

Weekly Staffing Research Outlook
01/14/2025
The staffing industry continued in a holding pattern in 3Q 2024, with quarter-to-quarter sales easing just 0.7%, and the year-to-year gap narrowing to -11.4%—the smallest year-to-year contraction in five quarters.
The Staffing Stalemate Continued in 3Q 2024
ASA recently released the latest results from the ASA Staffing Employment and Sales survey. Established in 1992, the quarterly report provides key employment, payroll, sales, and gross margin benchmarks for staffing companies, with select breakouts by industry sector and company sales size.
The third quarter 2024 results showed that the industry continued to stabilize, as overall estimated temporary and contract staffing sales eased a mere 0.7% from the second to the third quarter of 2024, and 11.4% from 3Q 2023. Employment fell in a similar manner, as the industry shed 38,000 temporary jobs from the second quarter to the third, which translates to a decline of 1.8% quarter-to-quarter and 11.7% year-to-year.
As with the second quarter, median quarter-to-quarter sales growth among responding companies was slightly positive (0.9%) in 3Q 2024. By industry, companies saw median revenue growth in the industrial (1.5%) and engineering, IT, and scientific (2.7%) sectors. On the other hand, companies reported a median contraction in revenue in the office–clerical and administrative (-1.0%); health care (-6.1%); and professional–managerial (-16.9%) sectors.Â
How does your company compare? With the 4Q 2024 survey now open, don’t miss out on sales, employment, payroll, and gross margin benchmarks—learn more at americanstaffing.net/quarterly-survey.
Median Change in Temporary and Contract Staffing Sales by Sector: 1Q2024 to 2Q2024
