Priority Personnel Blog

Ever feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information coming at you each day?

With the barrage of data pouring in from newspapers, TV, the internet, social media, RSS feeds, e-mails, voicemails and good-old-fashioned face-to-face meetings, finding the critical information you need amidst all the “white noise” can be exhausting.

Take the BLS Monthly Employment Situation, for example.  It contains monthly employment estimates for over 1,000 industries from its Current Employment Statistics program.  However, the changes in these overall employment levels tend to be delayed in the monthly labor reports – making it a lagging indicator of economic trends.

Sound like a lot of white noise?

Not entirely.  Temporary help employment numbers, which are part of the monthly BLS report, are generally considered to be a coincident indicator for overall employment.  This means that changes in temporary help employment tend to forecast subsequent changes in overall employment and coincide with changes in economic activity.  Why?  Many companies use temporary staffing as a means to quickly adjust their operations to meet fluctuating demands for their products and services.

Here’s how to get current data for temporary help services in the BLS report:

1. Go to the BLS Current Employment Statistics home page.
2. Then select either the HTML or PDF version of the “Employment Situation Summary.”
3. Data for temporary help services can be found in Table B-1 (page 30 of the report’s PDF version).

 Effectively manage the economy’s highs and lows with Priority Personnel.

Our staffing services for Central Texas employers can help you run lean – while providing on-demand access to the talent you need to meet surges in demand.

What’s the single most important variable in the success (or failure) of your business?

Your staff.

Steven Berchem, Certified Staffing Professional and Vice President of the American Staffing Association, posted a great article on the ASA website which addresses the ways today’s businesses are using staffing to gain real competitive advantage. 

Here are a few of the article’s salient points:

• As agility becomes more essential to success, smart companies are rejecting traditional hiring models and taking bold approaches to staffing.  They are moving away from lengthy hiring processes and no longer see the wisdom of filling every position with a permanent employee.
• These changes in key business practices have led companies to use more temporary and contract employees in diverse and highly skilled professions, including: accountants, attorneys, chief executives, doctors, graphic designers, IT professionals and even pilots.
• Today’s staffing employees are motivated, satisfied and educated.  In a survey conducted by the ASA, nine out of 10 staffing employees said they would recommend temporary or contract work to a friend or relative.  And while it may come as a surprise, staffing employees are actually better educated than the overall workforce, with 74% having at least some college education (compared to 62% of the traditional workforce).
• Staffing firms provide the only means of accessing some of America’s best talent.  In fact, the majority of staffing employees either use temporary or contract work as their sole means of finding a “permanent” job, or they simply prefer their current work arrangement over traditional employment.

To read or download the full article, click here.

Maximize the Value of Your Human Resources with Priority Personnel

If you’d like to maximize the value of your staff as a source of competitive advantage for your company, contact Priority Personnel today.  We can show you how to use staffing to become more agile, efficient and profitable.  Together, we can develop a smart staffing plan that will enable your organization to compete – and win.