The Sunday New York Times reported on a surge in temp labor hiring. Indeed, the November temporary labor hiring numbers were relatively strong. To quote the Times:

“Last month 52,000 temps were added, greater than the number of new workers in any other category. Not even health care and government, stalwarts through the long recession, did better.”

As the economy is in the initial stages of recovery, companies will typically turn to temp labor resources to cover any demand surges.
Most companies do not yet believe in a full recovery, and as such do not want to commit or tie up significant funds in permanent personnel additions.

Temp labor resources are ideal to cover short term demand increases, and until further proof is available that the recovery is sustainable companies will look to temp labor resources first.

However, even with increased demand for temp labor resources, the market remains very favorable for buyers. The amount of available resources is vast, and the recruiting cost is currently very low. With US unemployment hovering around 10% it is still a buyer’s market even with this spike in temp labor demand.

Endre Støgård is a Category Manager for Services in Ariba’s Global Services Organization (GSO). In this role he provides commodity knowledge and strategic sourcing direction for a wide range of categories within the corporate services area, including Finance, Human Resources and Travel.