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U.S. Employment Situation (May 2013)
published by Bruce Steinberg | June 7, 2013

named as a Top 100 Influencer in HR-Recruiting

 

 

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Temporary Help Services Reach Record High ...
 

It was bound to happen. Temporary Help Services reached a new high in terms of employment in May surpassing the previous high just more than 13 years ago in April 2000.

 

[Note: clicking on the chart will open it in a new browser window.]

 

As the chart shows, the sector has flirted with making new highs throughout much of 2006, but never surpassing that previous high of April 2000 until last month when it finally did.

 

But, is it really a development to celebrate? After all, temporary help services portion of all nonfarm employment -- i.e. its market share -- is lower, albeit incrementally, now than in April 2000. Why?

 

The world is a much different place today than 13 years ago. Jobs are quite different today than it was back then. Let's briefly -- very briefly -- explore how the nature of jobs has changed in the past 13 years.

 

Two sectors that were fairly important customers to many temporary help services back in 2000 were manufacturing and construction. In April 2000, those two sectors represented a total of 21.1 percent of all nonfarm employment. By 2006, they were only about 16 percent and last month those two sectors were only 13.1 percent of all nonfarm employment. And speaking of manufacturing -- it could again become a major force for the staffing sector -- there is speculation that the "energy revolution" could again make the United States a manufacturing powerhouse. For example, the cost of energy is about six times more expensive in Europe than in the U.S. so German carmaker BMW built a new factory in accordance to state-of-the-art sustainability principles in the U.S. to produce carbon fibers, which is a very energy intensive process. [We explored the apparent return of U.S. manufacturing in this space back in February.]

 

Temporary help services sector has been able to exceed its previous high 13 years ago despite significant shrinkage in two major customers sectors by servicing more sectors and / or broadening their array of services. But, they were not able to grow in terms of their share of the job market since the market share of temporary help services is slightly lower now (1.98 percent) than back in 2000 (2.03 percent).

 

Today, we -- along with a number of staffing industry consultants that we regularly work with -- are seeing that staffing executives are have come to the realization that in order to grow their business, they are not depending upon just temporary help services sector growth but are expanding into new markets, either, geographically or by discipline / service sector, or both.

 

 

Strategic Planning Tools ...

Our Temporary Help Services Interactive Data Book tool will enable to view the local (down to the county level) temporary help services trends as well as benchmark your local staffing operation  to discover exactly where you are positioned in the market and if your offices are performing up to the local market.

Then use our Employment Tracking Tool that is designed to assist you in identifying and evaluating new sectors and markets. It examines the overall employment trends by industry in the given market to help determine possibly under-serviced industries to target marketing efforts (as well as what industries to avoid). By doing this, it shows what industries are growing and therefore are in expansion mode making them eager for a wide variety of products and services and likely in need of additional staff.

Demonstrations of both strategic planning tools are available.

See further descriptions of these two strategic planning tools and links to the demos


2020 is now only seven years away ... this free report will help you plan to get there

 

Our special supplemental standalone report on the future nature of jobs to the year 2020, which includes a focus on what the future holds for staffing and employment services, is still available. And because we know our audience tend to the JUNE 7, the eight-page report is packed with charts and tables of data. The report also includes lists of the fastest growing industries/sectors as well as types of jobs in order for staffing executives to help in their strategic planning for the immediate future. If you would like a copy free of charge, just shoot us an email and we'll send the link.


 

Looking for more? Check out our podcasts!

Podcasts of the current employment situation will be available by 4:00 p.m. ET Friday, June 7th. The video podcast, which you can start and stop to study the tables and graphs as well as replay individual sections, includes additional data and information.  Watch the video version here or just listen to the audio version here (no special hardware or software required), which also can be downloaded to an iPod.


The "ultimate consultant's consultant."

"Bruce is an invaluable resource to me in working through the strategic planning process with my clients in the staffing industry. Bruce consults with me on each engagement and customizes his deliverables accordingly, exceeding my expectations each time. He expediently gathers and compiles the data I need and delivers it in user-friendly reports which make the analysis portion of my job easy. Because with Bruce's assistance I can make strategy recommendations with confidence and accuracy, my clients benefit greatly in turn. He is the ultimate "consultant's consultant." -- Amy Bingham, Bingham Consulting Professionals View more Testimonials

May 2013 Employment Report

 

Quick recap

 

"The most important employment report in a long time" as announced by some pundits was relatively strong despite an economy on somewhat shaky ground and a stock market that did not do very well this past week.

The total number of jobs was up by 175,000 in May (or up 178,000 if the decline in government jobs is factored in), which was slightly better than some estimates, and notably better than April's gain of 149,000 or March's growth of 142,000. However, the unemployment rate inched up to 7.6 percent (was 7.5 percent in April) that was officially reported as "essentially unchanged." There were some large movements in the underlying data that are used to calculate, which are discussed in the Household Survey section at the bottom of this column.

Jobs Report

 

The number of jobs in the private Goods-producing sector declined by only 1,000 in May, which is in improvement from April's drop of 15,000 but still contrasts to March's increase of 14,000.

  • Although the Construction sector added only 7,000 in May, it was a reverse of the decline of 2,000 jobs in April, which was an improvement itself from when it was first reported.

  • Manufacturers cut by 8,000 jobs in May that was about the same it lost in April (down 9,000).
  • Mining and logging was flat by not adding nor removing jobs in May after chopping 4,000 in April.

Therefore, it was up to the private Service-providing sector to reel in any new jobs and it appeared to be up to the task. It grew by 179,000 jobs in May, which was a slight improvement from April's increase of 172,000 as well as March's gain of 140,000.

  • The Retail trade sector was busy -- after all, it is Spring / Summer -- by adding 27,700 jobs in May, which was considerably better than the 19,900 it added in April; it declined by 2,800 in March.
  • The pace continued to improve in Wholesale trade with 7,900 more jobs in May after adding 3,900 in April and growing by 3,400 in March
  • But the Transportation and warehousing sector apparently made a wrong turn last month by declining by 3,900 jobs in May after adding 5,900 in April.
  • Financial activities added another 4,000 jobs in May on top of growth of 9,000 in April and 6,000 in March. However, since its Real estate and rental and leasing sub-sector grew by 4,600 jobs in May, the larger Finance and insurance sector was essentially flat with an incremental decline of 600 jobs.
  • Growth in the Professional and business services sector has been remarkably stable for the past few months. It grew by 57,000 in May, was up by 60,000 in April, and increased by 59,000 in March. Computer systems design and related services added 6,000 positions in May and Management and technical consulting services jobs, which is about 30 percent smaller in terms of the number of jobs, added 3,200 jobs.
  • The Education and health services sector added a total of 26,000 jobs in May with the sector's Health care and social assistance portion growing by 11,800 jobs; Home health care services grew by 6,900 jobs in May, which was not as healthy as the 7,300 it added in April.
  • The party continued to pick up a little in the Leisure and hospitality sector that grew by 43,000 in May after adding 39,000 in April.
  • Government jobs continued to decline, but at a diminishing pace with a total decrease of only 3,000 total in May after a decline of 8,000 in April, and shrinkage of 12,000 in March. In May, the Federal government contracted by 14,000, State government was down by 2,000, but Local government grew by 13,000.

Temporary Help Services Roundup

 

Last month, we stuck our neck out a bit when we said Temporary Help Services were "is likely to reach a new historic [level] in May" and we are happy to report we were correct!

 

As you saw in the top section of this employment report, Temporary help services reached a record high in May. After the April number was revised downward by 4,400, the number of Temporary Help Services jobs grew by 25,600 in May, which means that it reached a record high level of 2,679,800, surpassing the previous high more than 13 years ago in April 2000. On a year-on-year basis, Temporary Help Services was up 7.5 percent in May 2013 and up 1.0 percent sequentially.

 

In May, Temporary help service's market share, that is its portion of all jobs, was 1.98 percent, which was more than just an incremental improvement from April's 1.96 percent.

(if the chart is unclear, click on them to open in a browser window)

Click on graph to open in a new browser window.

Household Survey

 

The May 7.6 percent unemployment rate was 0.1 percentage point higher than April's 7.5 percent. This was a result of a labor force growing by 420,000 (which was twice the growth in April) and 319,000 more employed persons but 101,000 more people were unemployed.The number of persons not in the labor force declined by 231,000.

 

In other words, although the size of the labor force expanded at the same time a fairly large number people found jobs, the number of unemployed persons did increase. Therefore, the unemployment rate incrementally rose.

The employment-to-population ratio was steady at 58.6 percent as the labor force participation rate incrementally increased to 63.4 percent in May (was 63.3 percent in April). And there were fewer (780,000) discouraged workers last month compared to May 2012 when there were 830,000.


NEXT EMPLOYMENT REPORT -- FRIDAY, JULY 5, 2013

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