Riding Out the Storm with Temp Labor
As they revamp their businesses, employers in many industries continue to hedge their labor bets by ramping up with contract and temporary labor. The general consensus is that this particular recovery is more uncertain than previous ones even though we are seeing some metrics pointing to improvement. This perception of risk is resulting in increased activity for staffing firms.
Since September 2008, 88 percent of employers have either maintained or increased the size of their non-employee workforce. Employers, still leery of increasing fixed costs, want to be able to quantify the output of a contractor versus a full-time employee. They’re now better able to make a business case for using contract talent.
Professional Services Pulls in Provisional Workers
Given positive experiences with contingent professionals on large projects clients are now accepting the idea of bringing in more professional-level workers on a project basis. Professional contract employment, based in part on the longstanding practices of the IT industry, is spreading to other sectors such as business services, financial services, IT and retail.
Science and Technology Rises with Interim Technical Professionals
Major corporations sitting on cash, while reinvesting, are marshalling more creative technical professionals on a long-term project basis. Typically these people have had full careers, and bring an incredible body of knowledge to their contract work. Defense contractors and construction firms are among the organizations boosting their use of contingent technical professionals.
Natural Resources Boom Hiring Temp Labor
As energy prices rise with the tide of US and Asian economies, natural resources companies are using contingent labor to ride the wave while mitigating the risk of hiring too much too soon. Other light industries are also ramping up contingent labor on the production side.
Hiring for Small Business
The current state of unemployment compensation has also motivated many entrepreneurs to think twice before hiring. Many small businesses build on the experience of their seasonal workforce from previous years. This allows them to bring on term-limited workers without wasting pay on days when business isn’t at its peak.
Global Recruitment
The new frontier of temp staffing in the 2011 and beyond – global recruitment. The temporary workforce has gone global – firms now deploy solutions for clients in locations around the world.