Workforce Technology

39 Staffing Industry Statistics for 2024

From remote work integration to cutting-edge recruitment tech, explore the transformative shifts in the staffing industry.
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There are many reasons why temporary staffing is getting more popular, primarily because companies use staffing companies for flexibility. Temporary employees allow a company to hire for a specific project or length of time while not having to commit to full salary and benefits long-term. As the world is embracing a new landscape, the staffing industry has been setting people up to work from home, investing in and using new recruitment technologies, and adjusting to a completely unfamiliar environment. In this article, we go over the main facts and statistics of this vital industry.

Clients & the Staffing Industry

  • 67% of hiring managers believe it is important for staffing companies to use the latest technology, and 74% of hiring managers said that it is the technology that sets staffing companies apart. (Career Builder, 2018) 
  • 40% of hiring managers reported they avoid working with staffing firms to save money, and 28% believe a staffing company would not be able to hire the positions they need. (Career Builder, 2018) 
  • Half of all hiring managers intend to increase their use of staffing firms in the next five years. (Career Builder, 2018) 
  • More than half (52%) of hiring managers say one of their main challenges in the recruiting process is gaining access to candidates with the right skills. (Career Builder, 2018) 
  • 77% of millennial clients plan to increase their use of staffing companies in the next five years. (Career Builder, 2018) 

Challenges & Benefits of Staffing

  • 20% of staffing employees cite schedule flexibility as a reason for choosing temporary/contract work. (American Staffing) 
  • Six in 10 staffing employees (64%) work in the industry between jobs or to help them land a job. (American Staffing) 
  • Almost half of the employees who choose temporary or contract work do so in the hopes of gaining permanent employment. (ASA-Digital, 2019) 
  • Most staffing employees work full time (73%), comparable to the overall workforce (74%). (American Staffing) 
  • The No. 1 reason people say they want to do temporary work is to earn extra income. (True Blue, 2019) 
  • One-fifth (20%) of those who choose temporary/contract jobs do so because of scheduling flexibility. (Forbes, 2018) 
  • Nine out of ten employees stated that temporary staffing increased their employability. (Murrayresources, 2018) 

COVID-19 & Staffing Industry Trends

  • 30% of staffing and recruitment professionals report that their businesses are doing better than or as well as this time last year. (GRID, 2020) 
  • As the demand for remote workers is on the rise, alongside it all the office operations (32%), onboarding (41%), and remote recruiting of candidates are also seeing a shift. (GRID, 2020) 
  • 64% of respondents said that remote jobs are and will be even more common. (GRID, 2020) 
  • 81% of recruiting companies found the reduction in job requirements the most challenging part of COVID-19. (GRID, 2020) 
  • Video interviewing and video conferencing solutions have seen the largest rise (91%) in innovative technologies that staffing companies have started using. (GRID, 2020) 
  • More than three-quarters of employed U.S. adults (79%) are satisfied with their employers’ pandemic-related return-to-work plans. (American Staffing, 2020) 
  • Health care workers (14%) are most likely to report that nothing will make them feel safe on the job during the pandemic. (American Staffing, 2020) 
  • Mid-year temporary and contract staffing employment during COVID-19 is 31.6% lower than the year before. (American Staffing, 2020) 
  • During the epidemic, staffing provided jobs and professional possibilities for around 13.6 million people. (Ilo.org., 2020) 

Industry Overview

  • The United States generates around 31% of the global staffing industry revenue, which makes the U.S. a leading country in the staffing industry. (Statista, 2019) 
  • 16 million temporary and contract workers are hired throughout the year. (American Staffing) 
  • On any given day, 2.1% of employed adults (3.1 million) are working in the staffing industry, with 63% being temporary employees, and 37% being contract workers. (ASA-digital, 2019) 
  • Staffing employees work in all sectors, 36% have industrial occupations, 24% are in office-clerical and administrative positions, 21% in professional-managerial, 11% in engineering, information technology, and scientific, 8% in health care. (American Staffing) 
  • Around 3.000.000 temporary and contract employees work for America’s staffing firms during a typical week. (Americanstaffing.net, 2021) 
  • Temporary employees work full-time in 73% of cases. (Willistowerswatson, 2021) 
  • In the U.S., there are around 25,000 Recruiting and Staffing Agencies. (American Staffing Association, 2021) 
  • U.S. staffing industry has a market size of $151.8 billion. (Statista, 2021) 
  • The recent estimate predicts that revenue growth in the staffing business will be 4% in 2022, up from 3% in the April forecast. (Staffingindustry, 2021) 

Recruiting Statistics

  • 40% of employers plan to hire full-time workers, and 47% are looking for temporary employees. (Career Builder, 2019) 
  • 92% of employers say soft skills are a key factor in determining whether they hire a candidate, and 80% believe soft skills are more of equally important as hard skills. (Career Builder, 2019) 
  • 40% of respondents said that the most challenging phase of the recruitment lifecycle is sourcing candidates. (Statista, 2020) 
  • 41% of recruiters say entry-level positions are the hardest to fill. (Indeed, 2017) 

Financial Overview of the Staffing Industry

  • Global staffing revenue is projected to decline between 14% and 37% in 2020. (Staffing Industry, 2020) 
  • U.S. staffing industry revenue is expected to fall by 21% in 2020. (Staffing Industry, 2020) 
  • The global staffing industry revenue amounted to 481.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2019. (Statista, 2019) 
  • There are over 20,000 staffing and recruiting companies in the U.S. (Murray Resources, 2018) 
  • The top five markets in 2018 were the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, and Australia. (WEC Global, 2020) 

Amid a massive economic slowdown, the staffing industry which establishes and builds connections between clients and workers is even more important.

Written by shortlister editorial team

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