Measuring economic temp

Linda Hangren of Omaha lost her job at a printing company last March but didn't stop working, and her belief that temporary employment beats sitting at home finally paid off with the offer of a permanent job.

“It's important while looking for a position to let employers know that you're just not sitting around. And you feel like you're actively out there and working toward your goal,” said Hangren, recently hired as a financial analyst at a local publishing company.

The temporary-services sector, which has added jobs nationally every month since August, has become a bright spot in an otherwise discouraging national employment picture.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 47,000 temp jobs added in December, the fifth straight month of gains, for a total of 166,000 new positions since last summer.

That's important, because economic experts say increases in this sector tend to precede broader employment recovery. As conditions improve, employers first restore hours and bring on temporary workers. When that isn't enough to meet demand, businesses then hire permanent, full-time workers. And that's when unemployment rates start to decline.

Comparable statistics aren't available on the state level, said Nebraska Labor Commissioner Catherine Lang. She and Kerry Koonce, a spokeswoman for the Iowa Department of Labor, said a related indicator shows that temporary job numbers in the two states were statistically flat over the last few months.

But Koonce agreed temporary jobs often foreshadow permanent hires.

“You see an uptick there first — the kinds of jobs you first notice through Manpower and that type of thing. It allows employers to ‘test the waters,'” add people during a state of economic flux without making a long-term commitment, she said.

Grace Clark, branch manager for Robert Half International in Omaha, a worldwide staffing firm whose divisions include Accountemps, said her company has seen increased demand locally, although she declined to give specific numbers.

In the Omaha area, the need for temporary workers is most acute in health care, tax accounting and in general accounting, which primarily is accounts receivable and collections, she said.

Many businesses reduced staffs deeply and now are embarking on a project or hitting their peak season and need help, Clark said.

Scott Haag, Omaha-Council Bluffs branch manager for Manpower, another international staffing company, also reports increased hiring of temporary workers, beginning late in the third quarter of 2009 and continuing through the end of the year.

“Employers are saying, ‘OK, let's bring in temps to fill the void initially, and as we get more confident we'll make the decision to hire on a full-time basis,'” he said.

Active areas include accounting and finance, durable goods manufacturing, and, to a lesser degree, transportation and utilities, Haag said.

In addition to supplying temp workers, Manpower has fielded exploratory calls from businesses that indicate they might boost employment but want an outside company to handle recruiting and screening, he said.

Employers have streamlined their operations to cut costs and reduced their HR departments, so they're outsourcing those functions to companies like Manpower, Haag said.

Clark said that based on her company's recent experiences and observations, it's guardedly optimistic about the future, a term that Haag also used.

“The (business) clients are fairly optimistic, and in the last three months job candidates who have been looking for quite some time have experienced more traction,” Clark said. “The wheels are turning, there are more opportunities.”

Haag said national and regional surveys conducted by Manpower indicate Omaha-Council Bluffs employers are more likely to hire people in the first three months of 2010 than they were in the last couple of years.

Nationally, of the more than 28,000 employers surveyed, 73 percent plan to keep staff levels stable, which is a record, according to Manpower.

That result “is good for the employed, and an overall positive outlook means expanding opportunities for job seekers,” Jonas Prising, Manpower president of the Americas, said in a press release.

“Employer uncertainty around hiring is shifting from whether to consider adding staff, to when — and at what rate — to make the investment,” Prising said.

Temporary positions filled by Clark's company range from a single, four-hour assignment to jobs lasting 12 months and more, she said.

“It really varies,” Clark said. “The advantage of temporary employment is that the (business) client doesn't have to commit on Day One to how long they need them.”

Payment also varies, depending on the position, qualifications required and the length of assignment, she said.

Not all temporary workers are people who are between full-time jobs, Clark said, although temp work is a good stopgap measure in today's economy, when it takes longer to find a full-time position.

“(Temp work) helps reduce the financial pressure,” she said.

Hangren, who has bachelor's degrees in accounting and business management, said she has used temporary job-placement services like Accountemps at various times over the last 30 years. It keeps her skills sharp, introduces her to different industries and is a good way to network, she said.

“Sometimes jobs aren't advertised,” Hangren said. “It gives you an ‘in' you might not otherwise have.”

Her most recent assignment was to have lasted no more than six weeks, Hangren said, but the employer liked her work and decided she could assist the company in the future.

“They thought, ‘This is someone we could use all the time.' And I was thrilled,” she said.

On the other hand, some people choose temp work permanently because of its lifestyle benefits.

“There's flexibility: You go in and do your job and go home. And you make connections, which can be important in the future,” Clark said.

Contact the writer:

444-1050, pat.waters@owh.com

« Money

Share