Mon, 25 Jun 2012

US staffing employment remained relatively unchanged, up 0.4% from April to May (9,200 jobs), according to seasonally adjusted jobs data released by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

This meant that temporary employment for the month was 8.5% higher than in May 2011.

During the first three months of this year, the average rate of monthly job creation was 226,000; by contrast, the monthly average for April and May was 73,000.

Richard Wahlquist, president and chief executive of the American Staffing Association (ASA), calls the data “a disappointingly dreary start to the summer jobs season, but not a surprise because overall employment lags economic trends, and gross domestic product for the first quarter has been adjusted downward”.

He adds: “The non-seasonally adjusted numbers for temporary help employment, which provides a real-time snapshot of what’s going on in the economy, suggests continued – albeit agonisingly slow – improvement.”

Data from the ASA, based on its quarterly ‘Employment and Sales Survey’, showed that in the three months to March, temporary and contract employment was 6% higher year-on-year. This is the ninth consecutive quarter of year-on-year staffing industry job growth since the recession ended in 2009.