New Starts Down and Four-Week Average Down From Prior Week

Staffing employment held steady during the week of April 8-14, with the ASA Staffing Index edging up just slightly to hold at a rounded value of 90. Staffing jobs were down 7.6% from the same period last year; and staffing firms cited school breaks and temporary-to-permanent conversions as factors that hindered further growth.

New starts in the 15th week of the year decreased by 7.6% from the prior week. More than four in 10 staffing companies (42%) reported gains in new assignments week to week.

The ASA Staffing Index four-week moving average decreased from the prior week to hold at a rounded value of 90, and temporary and contract staffing employment for the four weeks ending April 14 was 8.0% lower than the same period in 2023.

“Further normalization in post-pandemic labor supply and demand has enabled staffing employment to reach a steady equilibrium, as evidenced by the ASA Staffing Index holding firm around a value of 90 for 10 consecutive weeks. However, there is still plenty of room for growth in 2024; tailwinds such as interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and further moderation in inflation have the potential to shake up the labor market,” said Noah Yosif, chief economist at ASA.

This week will be used in the April monthly employment situation report scheduled to be issued by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on May 3.

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.