Employment at staffing companies falls

Staffing companies are not exempt from the same economic problems facing other small and medium-sized businesses, new data suggests.

Figures from the American Staffing Association reveal that employment in the industry fell during the second quarter of 2008.

Although the number of temporary and contract workers employed by agencies remained fairly steady at 2.8 million, the average daily employment dropped by 6.5 percent compared with the same period in 2007.

Richard Wahlquist, president and CEO of the ASA, said that although employment is down, it is not faring as badly as some years in the past decade.

"As American businesses have cut jobs and reduced hiring, staffing employment has been directly affected … but we have not seen anything like the precipitous drop characteristic of previous recessions," he commented.

Last year's research by the ASA indicates that staffing employment reached an all-time high in 2007.