New assignments down from the prior week
Staffing employment eased for a third straight week in the week of Feb. 13-19, with the ASA Staffing Index decreasing by 0.9% to a rounded value of 100. Some staffing companies mentioned temporary-to-permanent conversions and seasonal business fluctuations as barriers preventing further growth. Staffing jobs were 4.5% below the same week last year.
New starts in the seventh week of the year decreased by 1.3% from the prior week. About a third of staffing companies (35%) reported gains in new assignments week-to-week.
The ASA Staffing Index four-week moving average nudged down from the prior week to a rounded value of 101.4, and temporary and contract staffing employment for the four weeks ending Feb. 19 was 3.2% lower than the same period in 2022.
“Staffing employment is off to a slower start in 2023 than in 2022, though it remains stronger than at this time in any year before that,” said Tim Hulley, ASA assistant director of research.”
This week will be used in the February monthly employment situation report scheduled to be issued by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Mar. 10.
The ASA Staffing Index is reported nine days after each workweek, making it a near real-time measure of staffing employment trends. ASA Staffing Starts are the number of temporary and contract employees placed in new assignments during the reporting week. ASA research shows that staffing employment has historically been a coincident economic indicator.
