Temporary staffing is expected to grow a huge growth in the year 2019. In fact, a recent report by Staffing Industry Analysts has indicated that the Temporary Staffing in the US has grown by a margin of 3 percent. It should be noted that this growth is being witnessed for the 10th consecutive year.
The growth has been found to be more in the realm of the IT sector. There are several factors that have proved to be guiding this enhanced growth. The recruiting agencies have been finding it difficult to find the right candidates for the positions in the IT industry. In fact, there is a severe shortage of talent in the fields of cyber/data security, cloud architects and data architects/scientists. There has been a huge demand for these areas, and this has become one of the strongest points that have forced the companies to opt for temporary staffing.
The shortage of talent and high demand has brought a sharp increase in the freelancer kind of employment, and thus the staffing agencies have been coming up with sustained growth in the area because of a tighter labor market. Like one of the employment agencies in Irving Texas told us, the US staffing market (that includes both temporary and permanent staffing) is expected to grow at the rate of around 3 percent in 2019 and a host of this will be in the temporary staffing.
Apart from the IT sector, you can also expect a standard growth education, marketing, and creative genres. The trends as suggested in the SIA report indicate the possibility of a growth of around 7 percent in these two sectors. It would be quite interesting to note that the temporary staffing in the areas like clerical office tasks is expected to be witnessing a downward trend. The revenues (of the temporary staffing agencies) fell by around 2 percent in 2018 and are expected to fall further by another 1 percent this year as well.
The SIA report stated this in connection with trends in staffing –
“….we are at last starting to see broadly … Reported signs of bill rate increases…bill-rate increases could support revenue growth and help offset any declines in volume due to labor scarcity.”
The bill rates have been increasing since 2018. In fact, it has been reported to be at an all-time high. This estimate is supported by the recent surveys which indicated that almost 40 percent of the firms reported having found the bill rate increases, while 0 percent of the respondents claimed a decrease. This can be seen as a mirror to what can be expected in the temporary staffing segment in 2019. The highest bill rate increases are expected to be in the emerging openings in the organizations, especially in the IT and finance sectors. A few good examples can be Blockchain development, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Once again, the shortage of talent is what is driving this upward trajectory of the temporary staffing.
In essence, good days wait for US staffing agencies.
