Hiring by staffing and employment agencies continued its upward trajectory during April, but even the strong showing couldn’t overcome the generally sluggish hiring by American businesses last month.

The U.S. Department of Labor in its monthly report out this morning said 115,000 new jobs were created in April, well below the 160,000 or so that economists, on average, were expecting.

The report also showed the unemployment rate dipping from 8.2 percent to 8.1 percent, mostly due to workers leaving the labor force.  The share of Americans now in the labor force is at the lowest level since 1981, The New York Times reported.

Hiring by staffing agencies alone added 21,000 jobs during the month. Hiring by employment services (nurse registries, etc.) accounted for just under 7,000 more.

Even so, the staffing industry has been averaging 24,000 new jobs a month since the beginning of the year. That’s 50% higher than for the same period in 2011, when the average was 16,200.
Manufacturing jobs also grew, increasing by 16,000 jobs.In other areas where independent recruiters and search firms have a strong presence, new job growth showed significant strength. Hiring for legal services, accounting, computer systems, engineering, and other professional and technical services was up by 27,500 jobs.

The government numbers — and the temp hiring growth — offered more evidence that the becalmed recovery isn’t about to spark, but neither is it about to slip backwards. In releasing its initial April estimates, the government revised upwards job number for February and March by a combined 53,000. That put the average monthly growth since January at 201,000 jobs, more than half again the average of the same months a year ago.

“We’re still growing just gradually,” Nigel Gault, an economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts, told Reuters. ”Hiring is coming back into line with what you would expect with sluggish growth.”

“It’s a pretty sluggish report over all,” said Andrew Tilton, a senior economist at Goldman Sachs.

Governments continued to shed jobs, losing 15,000, offsetting the 130,000 private sector jobs added in April. (ADP earlier this week, predicted the economy added 119,000 private sector positions.)

Retail added 29,300 jobs, mostly in general merchandise stores; hiring by hotels, motels and food and drink establishments increased by 26,700 positions.

The biggest loser was transportation and warehousing, off by 16,600 jobs. Other sectors showed small losses (construction was down by 2,000) or were unchanged.

In April, workers on private nonfarm payrolls averaged 44.5 hours unchanged from March, though manufacturing workers averaged an extra .1 hour to 40.8 hours, and factory overtime rose by the same amount to 3.4 hours.

Average hourly earnings for all employees increased a penny to $23.38. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 1.8 percent.

Temporary and contract employment has been rising steadily since the beginning of the year, pushing the Staffing Index to 91 for the week ending April 15. That’s a 6.6% rise since the same week last year. Then, the Index stood at 85. The Index is a measure of staffing activity, and is published weekly by the American Staffing Association. The ASA says, “staffing industry employment serves as a coincident economic indicator and a leading indicator of total U.S. nonfarm employment.” American Staffing Association

Last week’s disappointing jobs report, showed  the U.S. economy added only 120,000 new non-farm jobs in March. That was a surprise to economists and labor analysts, nearly all of whom were expecting the number to be over 200,000.

It was the lowest job growth in five months, and the first time since November the number was below 200,000.Even the usually robust growth in temp jobs seems to have taken a breather in March. Temp jobs dipped by 7,500 during the month, the first time the Labor Department registered a decline in the category since last June.

But even with the blip, there were 8% more temp and contract jobs in March than a year ago. That’s well ahead of the overall jobs growth rate, which in a year-over-year comparison is just under 1.4%.

The government’s unadjusted numbers tell a little more positive story. The nonseasonally adjusted jobs numbers form the Bureau of Labor Statistics show the staffing industry added 29,400 jobs in March. Year-over-year, the increase in temp and contract staffing hit 8.5%.

Using the nonseasonally adjusted numbers for comparison, the U.S. economy added a total of 81,100 jobs last month.

“For the most part, staffing firms continued to see healthy demand in March, as was reflected by the nonseasonally adjusted BLS employment numbers,” says Richard Wahlquist, president and chief executive officer of the American Staffing Association. “In the current environment, businesses are understandably cautious about when and how to add additional flexible and permanent staff.”

Before last week’s job numbers were out, CareerBuilder offered an upbeat view of employment in the current quarter. After surveying some 2,300 HR professionals and hiring managers, CareerBuilder says 30 percent of employers plan to increase their full-time, permanent workforce. Even more — 34 percent — expect they’ll bring on more temps and contract workers.

In Q1, 37 percent of employers hired more temps, an eight point increase over the 29 percent who hired temps in Q1 last year.  The company also says 31 percent of employers report not being to find qualified employees to fill open jobs. That’s up from the 24 percent who said that last year.

But it seems that for every optimistic report, another one turns up with a cautionary note. Today’s is from The Conference Board, a business research organization, that says its employment trends index dropped in March. It’s now at 107.28, down from the revised figure of 107.47 in February. The March figure is still up over 5 percent  from the same month a year ago.

“After five months of strong growth, the ETI declined slightly in March,” said Gad Levanon, Director of Macroeconomic Research at The Conference Board. “Together with the disappointing job growth released on Friday, and only moderate improvement in economic activity in recent months, it seems that employment growth in December to February, averaging almost 250,000 a month, may not be a sustainable trend.”

It may be tea leaf reading, but looking back at least year, March’s decline in seasonally adjusted job growth and temp positions has some echoes of last year, when a May surprise signaled months of mediocre growth.

For a sector with 2.5 million workers, March’s loss of a mere 7,500 staffing jobs  might be nothing more than a statistical aberration and easily dismissed, were it not for April, May, and June of last year when staffing growth turned negative after 19 consecutive months of increases.

When growth turned up again in July, it was slower in each of the next two quarters than in last year’s first quarter, when the staffing industry added 66,100 positions. Even with the negative growth last month, staffing firms added almost 84,000 jobs in the first quarter. That’s a 27% increase over the 1st quarter of 2011.

One other data point is worth looking at, and that’s the number of workers at placement agencies. Counted in this category are employees of chauffeur services, nurse registries, employment firms, state job service offices, casting agencies, and the like.

Changes in employment here provides some indication of economic health. But deciding what the changes mean is tricky because some placement services — the government offices, for instance — added workers to assist the unemployed as the economy was tanking. That said, there is evidence that employment in this category does move in some rhythym with general economic conditions. In 2007, just before the official start of the recession, there were an average of 277,400 workers. Two years later, the average fell to 200,200 workers.

Jobs began returning early in 2010 and the growth continued in all but two months of last year. As of February, there were 240,800 workers employed in the employment placement agencies category.

With the improving economy comes a new downside for employers with an older workforce — retirements. Not everyone is ready to retire; many baby boomers intend to work well into their golden years. But many who weathered the recession and now see their retirement savings regaining lost ground are beginning to consider encore careers. As they depart, they take with them years of experience and skills honed by confronting challenges not easily learned in school. Wary of losing too much talent, too quickly, employers are turning to agencies for help staffing these jobs with workers just like those that left. And many retirees are only to glad to help, at least on a temporary basis, and so long as their retiree benefits aren’t at risk. Retiree re-staffing is gaining momentum as companies begin to recognize the business risks of having all that experience walk out the door at once. Washington Post

Green Key Resources is one of the best staffing firms for which to temp. That’s what global research and advisory firm Staffing Industry Analysts declared when it named us one of three finalists for the coveted title.

Acknowledging the honor on behalf of Green Key, Tony Giarratana, executive director-temporary and contract division, credited our candidate selection and our commitment to our clients and our staff. “We pride ourselves on our strong, long-term relationships.”

And it’s not just us who said that. In an article in SI Review about the awards, Ray Innocenti, a Green Key contract worker, says, “I was impressed with the way Green Key handled my personal situation and how they pursued it.”

More than 140 staffing firms across the United States were nominated. Between November 2011 and early January 2012 the internal employees of each company were surveyed to select a Best Staffing Firm to Work For. In addition, the temporary employees placed by these staffing companies were surveyed by Staffing Industry Analysts, for the Best Staffing Firm To Temp For designation.

Three firms were named “Best” in each of three categories, according to the number of internal employees.

Green Key was one of three finalists in the Best to Temp For category, which, Staffing Industry Analysts said, “is the company temporary employees most preferred to work for and were most likely to refer to a friend or colleague.” The winner was IT staffing firm Signature Consultants.

“These firms truly represent not only a broad range of staffing companies and services, but based on the results, they exemplify great companies to work for. Given the importance of attracting and retaining top talent to success in staffing, this is an especially important honor for firms in the industry,” stated Barry Asin, president of Staffing Industry Analysts.

For Green Key, says Giarratana, the honor is recognition of the company’s philosophy on treating temporary workers well. “The company makes sure temporary workers are placed in the environment they are seeking. Green Key isn’t interested in just placing people anywhere; it seeks to place candidates where they are really looking to be.”

Green Key screens both clients and candidates to make sure there is as close to a perfect match for the job, and that both candidate and client are happy, Giarratana says, explaining that the dialog and follow-up continues for the duration of the job.

During a temp’s first and second weeks on the job, says Giarratana, “Our company will call them twice to check up on them. After the first two weeks, the company contacts the temps every three weeks.”

“The happier your temps are, the better they’re going to do on their assignments.”

This is the second major award won by Green Key since the beginning of the year. In January, the business publication Crain’s New York ranked us fourth among New York City’s largest executive recruiting firms.

Young workers prefer to live in urban areas, so they naturally gravitate to the downtowns of larger cities. What’s more, 65% of the people in the 25-34 age group first find a place they want to live, and then go look for a job.

That’s the kind of data that recruitment marketers are beginning to embrace as they develop strategies for attracting talent in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Marketing Meets Staffing addresses the importance of data, and especially demographic data in spotting workforce trends.

One critical trend, the article notes, is the mobility of the workforce, and the willingness of the most educated workers to relocate for a job. “That workers are migrating to where work is comes as no surprise. What may surprise, however, is the extent and character of the migration. Movement is occurring on an unprecedented scale and the primary driver is economic opportunity,” the article notes

Temporary workers and staffing agency hiring drove a big part of February’s 227,000 new jobs, according to the report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

It’s the third consecutive month of job increases over 200,000. The numbers of new jobs created exceeded what most economists were expecting, even if the 8.3% unemployment rate was expected.

“The labor market has found its legs in the last few months,” said Julia Coronado, chief economist for North America at BNP Paribas in New York.She told MarketWatch, “it looks like there’s enough of a broad base that the momentum can be sustained.”

Much of what’s fueling the growth is the hiring of temporary and contract workers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that since January 2010 temp hiring accounted for 477,000 of the 3 million new jobs created. The good news is that all signs point to a continued surge in temp workers as employers react cautiously to improving business conditions. As the accompanying chart shows, temp hiring and staffing placements are headed up and the pace is accelerating as the economy slowly improves.

February’s job gains were spread across most sectors. However, the staffing and employment services sector contributed 27% of the total new hires. Temp placements alone added 45,200 new jobs to the economy. That’s almost 20% of all the new jobs during the month.

The two charts pretty clearly show the connection between staffing industry hires and the economy. As would be expected in any downturn, employers first reduce their temporary and contract workforce, before laying off their permanent hires. That began in early 2007, accelerating toward the end of the first quarter of 2008.

By the fall of 2009, the first signs of an improving economy were evident, as employers turned to staffing firms. Work was beginning to pick up for some employers, but not strongly enough to offer the confidence to hire permanent workers. In fact, even as pace of bringing on temporary workers was quickening, many employers were still laying off staff and reducing their permanent workforce. The few blips in spring of 2010 came from the huge — and short term — hiring of Census workers. Without them, monthly job growth through the summer of 2010 would have been negative.

Now, as is evident from the chart, with the improving economic outlook employers are continuing to grow their contingent workforce. If the current pace continues — and all signs say it will — then in a matter of months the number of temporary workers on America’s payrolls will spring ahead of 2007, which posted the largest number of temps to that time.

While economists predict that as employers gain confidence in the recover some will convert temps to full-time workers, more employers than ever will maintain and even grow their temp staff as a permanent part of their overall workforce strategy.

A recent survey of independent workers showed nearly 70 percent of them expect the flexible workforce trend is going to continue, regardless of the speed — or lack of — of economic improvement.

In last week’s government jobs reports several other sectors also showed strong growth. Healthcare topped the list with 61,000 new hires. Hospitals added just over a third of those new healthcare jobs, with ambulatory care facilities — doctor’s offices, outpatient facilities and the like — adding 28,200 positions.

The private sector created 233,000 jobs (which was offset by 6,000 job losses in government). Only in construction, down 13,000 jobs, and retail, down 7,400, were there significant private sector losses.

In addition to the employment services area and healthcare, there were big gains in manufacturing and leisure. Leisure and hospitality jobs grew by 44,000, most of that in the restaurant industry. Manufacturing added 31,000 new positions, with slightly more than a third of the workers hired for metal fabrication jobs.

Among the biggest losers were retail jobs in department stores. Some 25,000 jobs were cut there, not unexpectedly however, as stores completed inventory. That number was counterbalanced by a nearly identical growth in retail jobs in January.

With temporary workers swelling the hiring numbers, the evidence continues to grow that this is not just a response to an uncertain economy, but a permanent shift in the American workforce. The latest word on this comes from a survey in which 69 percent of independent consultants say the flexible workforce is a permanent change in the way employers do business. Staffing Industry Analysts

It’s been a long while since the days when men in gray flannel suits expected to spend their working lives with the same company. The norm now is not only to change jobs six or seven times, but to even change careers. That, and the huge corporate layoffs of the last several years, is fueling a trend among workers to choose free agency. Whether hiring on with an agency or hanging out their own shingle, the new worker ethos is “Go Temp.” One survey says 44% of the workforce considers themselves a free agent. The Washington Post

Job hunters who’ve worked with recruiters fall into one of two camps: Those who got placed and think the experience was, if not great, at least worthwhile; and those who didn’t get placed and feel abused. Following these 10 tips may help erase the misunderstandings and make the process easier for both job seeker and recruiter. RecruitingBlogs