Inavero Blog

Job losses ease slightly – what does it mean for staffing

Very interesting numbers coming out of BLS today.  Click here for the full release.  Here it is in a nutshell.  The U.S. still lost a bucket of jobs this last month (nearly 540,000) and unemployment is at 8.9% (up from 8.4%), but the silver lining is that compared to the losses over the previous months (average job losses of over 700,000 per month for the past 4 months).

What does it mean for staffing and recruiting?  My take is that we’ve seen the worst of it.  We may be walking along the bottom for a while, but I truly think we have found a bottom.  Why do I think it?  Take a look at the American Staffing Association’s weekly staffing index.  The industry took a hard and long fall from the cliff, but seems to be flattening out at the new level over the past 2 to 3 months.  When will we start to increase?  Not sure, but if you can sustain the level you’re at now for a while, my expectation is that short of any major shocks to the system, the industry will be flat for a bit, and once the ASA index starts to jump, we think it will be sustainable.

What is everyone else experiencing?  When do you expect to start back up?  Leave your thoughts in the comments section.