ASA January and February 2018 Staffing Index Reports
ASA January and February 2018 Staffing Index Reports
The American Staffing Association (ASA) provides frequent and relevant index information on temporary and contract staffing in the United States. The index is reported nine days after each workweek so as to keep a close real-time measure of staffing employment trends.
In January 2018, the staffing index moved from 91 to 90 in the four-week moving average ending January 14th. The ASA indicated this slight decline is a typical seasonal pattern. However, the week of January 8-14 the index reached 94 as the temporary and contract staffing employment was 5% higher than the prior week. This is the second-highest value for the same week since 2006.
Moving into February 2018 the staffing index remained at a 94 for the fourth straight week. Staffing employment for the four weeks ending on February 18th had the strongest growth rate of the same time period since 2010. A modest increase of .7% was seen over the same week last year.
The reports for the two months featured the New Year’s, Martin Luther King Day, and President’s Day holidays during these two months as factors influencing the index. These are factors sited by market research participants in their survey answers.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released seasonally adjusted data for January and February 2018 in the monthly employment situation report. The BLS’ economic news release table B-1 reports employees of nonfarm payrolls by industry sector and selected industry detail in the thousands. The report indicated in increase of 50 from January to February from 20,710 to 20,760 for professional and business services. Professional and technical services saw an increase of 18.9 from 9,092 to 9,110.9, but management and technical consulting services had a softening of -1.8 from 1,436 to 1,434.2. Other professional and technical services saw a slight increase of 3.9 from 727.5 to 731.4, and computer systems design and related services also showed a slight increase of 3.1 from January’s 2,068.4 to February’s 2,071.5
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The American Staffing Association keeps up with fluctuations in the staffing industry in the United States. They produce frequent reports in regard to current staffing levels according to their index, weekly fluctuations, comparisons to past statistics reported for the same time period in past years, and reference potential reasons for fluctuations based upon current events, seasons, and direct responses from survey participants. The ASA staffing index tracks weekly changes in temporary and contract employment. For reference, the baseline of the staffing index was set at 100 in June 2006. The index is based on data collected by a market research firm and participants include companies with annual sales from $7.5 million to $100 million and more.
