Published: November 21, 2008 01:28 pm      

Temporary jobs seeing temporary slow down

Retail industry losses account for 25 percent of all jobs lost in United States this year

The holiday season is usually when temporary employment surges. But this year, people seeking temporary jobs are having the most difficult time finding them since the economic recession in 2001.

As the economy falters, the retail industry is particularly hit hard — shedding 38,100 jobs in October alone, for a total of 297,000 jobs lost since January. That accounts for 25 percent of the 1.2 million jobs lost in the United States this year.

And retail jobs are one of the mainstays in the temporary employment industry.

“In general, the staffing industry is a barometer of the overall economy,” said Terry Malone, with J.C. Malone Associates, a temporary employment agency in Southern Indiana and Louisville.

The number of applicants is increasing, but the employers looking to hire is decreasing, he said. “This is our peak time of the year, and it’s fair to say orders (for employees) are down about 20 percent, if not more.”

Malone said staffing serves as a measure of the economy because as companies grow, they hire more temporary workers. But when companies begin to fail, they lay off temporary employees first.

“As the economy starts to tighten and slow down, as our orders start to fall, you can tell companies are starting to slow,” Malone said. “Economists traditionally look at what’s happening in the staffing industry to sound off a bell that a recession is coming.”

The United States hasn’t declared that the economy is in a recession, though policy-makers and economists disagree over what defines a recession and whether there is one or not. Technically a recession is defined as the occurrence of a negative Gross Domestic Product two quarters in a row — something which has not yet occurred. The GDP is low, but has remained above zero.

For Kelly Services, the slowing economy hasn’t affected business. The national staffing agency has actually seen growth in job seekers and in employers looking to hire, said Debra Sheehan, a vice president and district manager.

“We are seeing a pretty strong influx of quality employees and an influx of good jobs,” she said. “Sometimes in an unsure economic time, customers look at utilizing temporary staff to test the waters.”

And while a bad economy can cause some companies to stop hiring temporary workers and other companies to start, there is no doubt that the staffing industry is bellwether of things to come.

“The staffing industry is definitely intrinsically connected to what’s happening in the general economy,” said Michelle Snyder, with the American Staffing Association. “It makes sense that times are challenging for staffing, because times are challenging in the economy in general.”