Staff hours Edge Lower at the end of March
| Week ending April 1, 2023 | Indexed value | Y/J | W/W |
| American workforce | 97 | -13% | -0.4% |
| Commercial Personnel | 80 | -16% | -0.3% |
| Professional staff | 139 | -4% | -0.7% |
Introduction
Released weekly, the SIA | Bullhorn Staffing Indicator consists of two sets of analyses; a year-over-year comparison showing how the week that ended ten days ago (“measured last week”) compares to the same week 12 months earlier and an indexed value compared to data from the week ending January 13e2019.
Year-over-year changes for the week ending April 1
According to the indicator, hours worked for agency workers for the week ending April 1 (“last week measured”) were 13% lower than in the corresponding week a year ago.
The number of hours of temporary staff in commercial occupations (industrial and office/administrative) decreased by -16% year-on-year.
Temp hours in professional occupations (IT, healthcare, finance, engineering, etc.) fell by -4% year-on-year.
On a week-on-week basis, temporary agency hours worked decreased by -0.4%. Commercial temp hours decreased by -0.3% while professional temp hours decreased by -0.7%.
Year-over-year change in US temps, professional temps, and commercial temps
Commentary for the week ending April 1
The value indexed by Professional Staffing was 139 for the week ending April 1, following values of 140 and 141 in the previous two weeks (ending March 25).H and March 18erespectively.)
The value indexed by Commercial Staffing was 80 for the same week, following values of 81 and 82 in the previous two weeks.
The indexed value of US Staffing, weighted to reflect the mix of professional and commercial jobs in the US staffing industry, was 97 for the week ending April 1, following values of 97 and 98 in the previous two weeks, as shown in the chart below.
Values for US Personnel, Professional Personnel and Commercial Personnel
Perspective of staffing agency analysts
Hours worked in the US staffing industry in the week ending April 1 fell -13% year-over-year. The number of commercial temp hours decreased by -16%, while the number of professional temp hours decreased by -4%.
Over the past five weeks, hours worked in commercial occupations declined at an average year-over-year growth rate of -15%. Over the year 2022, the average year-over-year growth rate for commercial temp hours was -1%.
Over the past five weeks, hours worked in professional occupations declined at an average year-over-year growth rate of -5%. Over the year 2022, the average year-on-year growth rate for professional temp hours was 12%.
Compared to the same week two years ago (in March 2021), commercial broadcasting is down -10% and professional broadcasting is down 14%.
The trend of decreasing hours worked has parallels with the decline in temporary auxiliary employment as reported in the monthly Employment Situation reports of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (the April’s US jobs report was published on April 7). Temporary agency work has been below last year’s level since December 2022 and was lost by -10,700 jobs in March 2023 (-4.1% on an annual basis). Turning to the full year 2023 outlook, SIA expects a modest decline in commercial broadcasting and mixed trends in professional broadcasting in terms of market size. For more information, members of SIA can access our latest forecast reportpublished on April 4e.
About the SIA | Bullhorn Personnel indicator
The SIA | Bullhorn Staffing Indicator is a unique tool for measuring near real-time weekly trends in the volume of temporary staff provided by US staffing agencies. Each week, the indicator reports data for the week ending ten days before release. It shows the weekly hours worked by temporary workers in a sample of U.S. employment agencies using Bullhorn’s technology solutions. The indicator is weighted and compared to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics to approximate the composition of the staffing industry based on skills. While the indicator doesn’t assume to be a perfect reflection of the entire U.S. staffing agency universe, it does represent a sizeable sample of the U.S. staffing industry, reflecting a wide range of occupations, client industries and geographic footprint across the country.
The indicator can be used by staffing agencies to benchmark their past and current performance, as well as a tool for predicting short-term trends and prospects in the industry.
Since the US staffing industry has often functioned as an indicator of converging events for the US labor market and economy, the SIA | Bullhorn Staffing Indicator is also useful to a wider audience of business leaders and investors looking for real-time insight.
The indicator is a joint custom study by Bullhorn and industry consultant Staffing Industry Analysts.
Revisions and technical notes to the SIA | Bullhorn Personnel indicator
We note that readings for the past 4 weeks are subject to revision and so should be considered preliminary, with readings for the last recorded week most likely to be revised in next week’s data release. For more information on how the indicator was created and detailed technical notes, please refer to the methodology.
Underlying data for the SIA | Bullhorn Staffing Indicator can be downloaded from the link below:
SIA_Bullhorn_Indicator_20230411.xlsx 95.83 KB