October 2017 ASA and BLS Data
October 2017 ASA and BLS Data – Staffing Employment Keeps Moving Up!
American Staffing Association Index and Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Data October 2017. Let’s take a look at the October 2017 ASA and BLS Data.
ASA Index Data October 2017
The American Staffing Association (ASA) releases a monthly ASA Staffing Index, which reports on staffing employment in the United States. These monthly reports are based on an index they created in June of 2006, which was set at a base of 100. They report these findings nine days after each workweek. This timing allows it to be very close to real-time reporting.
At the end of October, the ASA released data on the week of October 9th through the 15th for staffing employment. The data showed the week moved up to 98.61. They also found positive movement in the temporary and contract sectors of a .09% increase over the week prior. Although the increase was not monumental, the ASA noted that participants cited temp-to-hire conversions as the main reason why the movement did not leap.
Although the month of September showed continued growth, October outdid September’s previous record of growth. The index moved from 98.06 to 98.40 showing the strongest four-week moving average this year to date! It will be interesting to see how things move by the end of November 2017.
BLS Data October 2017
In accordance with the above ASA data, the BLS data also demonstrated staffing employment increases for the month of October 2017. The BLS data reports in categories allowing the public to see specific sector changes in jobs. The numbers reported and reflected below are in the thousands.
Professional and Business Services grew by 50. Looking at subcategories, the Professional and Technical Services subcategory showed an increase of 14.2 from September to October. Drilling down the BLS data reports on categories within the professional and technical services sector. Management and Technical Consulting Services also demonstrated an increase of 3.7. Computer Systems Design and Related Services showed the same increase of 3.7. Temporary Help Services moved 18.3, but business support services decreased 1.0.
The BLS also reports seasonally adjust data from October 2016 to show annual changes as well. The following numbers demonstrate the differences and increases from October 2016 to October 2017. The data shows the following: Professional and Business Services October 2016 of 20,334, versus October 2017 of 20,870, Professional and Technical Services October 2016 of 8,987.9, versus October 2017 of 9,198.3, Management and Technical Consulting in October 2016 of 1,407.4 versus October 2017 of 1,456.0, and Computer Systems Design and Related Services October 2016 of 2,019.9 versus October 2017 of 2.069.2. Temporary Help Services also shows an increase over October 2016 of 2,953.5 versus October 2017 of 3,075.1.
Overall, both the October 2017 ASA and BLS Data demonstrate increases from September to October 2017 in staffing and temporary staffing categories. The BLS data also consistently shows increases in the above categories from October 2016 to October 2017. It will be interesting to see how 2017 rounds out as November progresses and through the end of the year.
