INTERNATIONAL US: ASA Staffing Index up 5.1% to near two-year high
Wed, 26 Sep 2012
Staffing employment in the US in September is up 5.1% from one year ago, and has reached its highest level since late 2010, according to the ASA (American Staffing Association) Staffing Index.
The index value for the week ending 16 September is 95, also indicating that staffing employment is approximately 2.4% higher than that reported for August, when it stood at 93 for most of the month.
The previous highest value for 2012 was 94, which it held for one week in May, prior to which it had been below 94 since the second week of December 2010. The last time it stood higher was two weeks in Spring 2008, but has not been consistently above this since late 2007.
The weekly ASA Index is reported nine days after each workweek, making it a virtual real-time measure of staffing employment trends.
- A separate report released on Monday from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas suggested a similar picture for festive season hiring in the retail sector. While retailers should hire more workers than 2011 (660,200) and 2010 (647,600), this is still likely to remain lower than the pre-recession figure of 722,000 seen in 2007.
