Key Findings:
- We forecast the US Staffing Industry will decline 3% in 2024 to reach a size of $184.6 billion, as the industry continues to pull back from prior peak levels. If we exclude the nurse staffing segments (that continue to normalize down steeply from pandemic levels), the remaining staffing industry is expected to be roughly flat this year, in aggregate. We forecast industrial staffing to decrease 5% in 2024 while office/clerical holds stable. We project IT staffing to decline 3% and healthcare staffing to decrease 11%, as both pull back from prior peak levels. As brighter spots in the 2024 outlook, we project mid-single-digit growth this year for engineering, life sciences, marketing/creative, and education staffing, as well as for place & search.
- Looking ahead to 2025, we forecast the US staffing industry will grow 3% to reach $189.9 billion, in line with modest overall growth in the US economy. We predict the commercial segments will return to growth (5% for industrial and 2% for office/clerical), while most professional segments other than healthcare will enjoy mid-single-digit expansion.
- Headwinds for the staffing industry include high pay rates (particularly in industrial staffing), greater client preference for hiring on a permanent rather than temporary basis (“labor hoarding”), and growing competition from alternatives to temporary staffing, such as freelancers via talent platforms, SOW consultants, and workers directly sourced by the client.
- Tailwinds for the staffing industry include greater acceptance of contingent work arrangements, the convenience of staffing platform technology, a shift to remote work that has enlarged the talent pool, and the increased complexity of staffing and talent acquisition technology, which enhances the value proposition that staffing suppliers can bring to their clients.
- In this report, pages 3-7 explain macro factors that undergird our forecast, pages 8-18 provide commentary on dynamics specific to each segment, and pages 19-22 contain summary tables of our market size and growth rate estimates, including historical values from 1995 up to the present.
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US Staffing Industry Forecast 20240326 – You do not have permission to view this object.