Part Timers Finding Full-Time Work on the Rise

Temporary workers moving to Full-Time employment is on the rise.  According to Staffing Industry News, the number of people putting in a full week rose to 113.8 million in December, the most since February 2009, 8.1 million worked fewer hours because they could not find a full-time job, the least since January 2009. The underemployment rate, which includes part-time employees who would prefer a full-time job, dropped from 16.4% to 15.2%. The Staffing Industry as a whole is seeing a shift from part-time and temporary to full-time employment.

Employee Turnover Calculator :: How much does employee turnover really cost?

Turnover is costly. Despite the harm it can cause to the bottom line, many businesses do not actually know how much turnover costs them. Policies that support workers, such as paid sick days, can help decrease turnover and reduce these costs. This turnover calculator provides an estimate of how much turnover costs your organization.

http://www.cepr.net/calculators/turnover_calc.html

Temporary Help Employment Numbers July 2011

July employment data, released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, showed virtually no change in seasonally adjusted staffing industry employment. In a year-to-year comparison, temporary help employment was 7.6% higher than July of last year.

Following two months of minimal job growth in the economy, total U.S. nonfarm employment increased by 117,000 jobs in July. New jobs were mostly added in the health care, retail trade, manufacturing, and mining sectors. Job losses continued in the government sector. The overall unemployment rate edged down slightly to 9.1%.

Staffing Companies created over 400K jobs in 2010

U.S. staffing companies created 401,000 jobs in 2010, according to data released today by the American Staffing Association. Last year’s growth in the average daily employment of temporary and contract workers ranked second to the historical record of 428,000 set in 1994.

On an average business day in 2010, America’s staffing firms employed 2.6 million workers, 18.4% more than in 2009—a rate of growth not seen since 1993 and 1994, which then exceeded 25% per year. The robust pace of 2010 continued into early 2011. In the first quarter, which usually exhibits a seasonal dip, average daily employment totaled 2.6 million, 14.3% more than in the same period of the previous year.

“Staffing employment reflects the economy,” says Richard Wahlquist, ASA president and chief executive officer. “As the economy emerged from the recession, businesses turned to flexible staffing solutions to meet increases in demand for their products and services. Even with economic growth slowing in the second quarter of this year, staffing companies continue to offer untapped employment opportunities for job seekers. Businesses have been increasingly interested in temporary-to-permanent placements.”

Temporary and contract staffing sales totaled $87.4 billion in 2010, 21.3% more than in 2009. In the first quarter of 2011, sales increased 19.5% from the same quarter last year to $22.8 billion.

These figures are based on the quarterly ASA Staffing Employment and Sales Survey, which has been newly benchmarked to recently released employment services data from the 2007 U.S. Census of Business. Data series have been adjusted back to 1990, when ASA began estimating the size of staffing industry employment and sales. The ASA Staffing Index, a 2006-to-present employment metric based on a weekly survey benchmarked to the census, has also been revised. The methodologies of the two ASA surveys—including details on their benchmarks—are posted on the ASA Web site, along with new data series for the quarterly survey and the ASA Staffing Index.

Information provided by Alexandra Karaer from the American Staffing Association.

Staffing Solutions Honored with 2011 World Class Customer Service Award

Staffing Solutions Enterprises, an industry leader in staffing and workforce management, will be honored as a finalist June 9, 2011 at the World Class Customer Service Awards sponsored by Smart Business Magazine.  This is the third year that Staffing Solutions has received this prestigious award.  The World Class Customer Service Awards are designed to honor companies for their superior customer service. The program serves to raise awareness of the importance of customer service in the business world, recognize organizations that demonstrate exceptional customer service and share best practices in customer service from those that do it best. Organizations are nominated for the award by their clients, customers and vendors.

HR University Training Begins March 31st at ERC…

We have always enjoyed ERC’s HR University Training and have found it to be a great resource. We are attending again this year. Hope to see you there!

 

The following HR training sessions will be conducted at ERC this spring, don’t miss your chance to register for the Series of programs, or an individual session where you will gain more in-depth knowledge on a particular subject area. Each class is pre-approved for 6 HRCI General recertification hours, and the series is pre-approved for a total of 30 General recertification hours.

Upcoming programs include:

• Employment Law Fundamentals – March 31st
• Compensation & Benefit Plan Design Basics – April 14th
• Orientation and Performance Management Plan Basics – May 5th
• Staffing & Recruitment Practices – May 19th
• Communication Skills for HR Professionals – June 2nd

These courses are all part of ERC’s HR University series. Click here for a complete series overview and information on preferred pricing for multiple registrations and SHRM chapter members.

 

Ohio and U.S. Employment Numbers

Ohio’s unemployment rate was 9.4 percent in January, down from the revised 9.5 percent in December, according to data released this morning by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS). Ohio’s nonfarm wage and salary employment increased 31,900 over the month, from the revised 5,034,200 in December to 5,066,100 in January.

The number of workers unemployed in Ohio in January was 551,000, down from 560,000 in December. The number of unemployed has decreased by 75,000 in the past 12 months from 626,000. The January unemployment rate for Ohio was down from 10.6 percent in January 2010.

The U.S. unemployment rate for January was 9.0 percent, down fron 9.4 in December.

 

Jobless claims fall

The four-week moving average of initial claims for unemployment insurance rose by 0.2 percent in the week ended Jan. 29 while total jobless claims fell by 9.2 percent.

In its weekly report released today, the U.S. Department of Labor announced the four-week moving average of jobless claims fell to 430,500 in the week ended Jan. 29, up 1,000 from the previous week’s revised number.

The four-week average smoothes the volatility of the weekly number of total reported claims. Total claims for the week ended Jan. 29 fell by 42,000 to 415,000 from the previous week’s revised number.

 

 

The New “Normal” for 2011 Unemployment Numbers

The Plain Dealer had an interesting article on unemployment and the fact that numbers may not drop until 2013.  Gone are the days of rising home values and 5 percent unemployment.  Today, we top double digit unemployment rates and homes that may never reach the value they had five years ago for another decade.

As for companies in Northeast Ohio, we’ve noticed a sharp increase in the use of temporary or contingent workers as a result of the rising unemployment numbers.

Take a look at the article from the Plain Dealer by By Teresa Dixon Murray.  Let us know what you think.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — While the financial world is finally improving, the economy in the years ahead may not look anything like the economy of the past, an executive with the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland said Tuesday.

Further, getting to the point of the so-called recovery may take longer than some experts predict, according to Mark Sniderman, the bank’s executive vice president and chief policy officer.

“I don’t think many of us believe that the new normal will be the same as the old normal,” Sniderman said at a luncheon sponsored by the Greater Cleveland Mortgage Bankers Association. About 45 people, mostly bankers and real estate professionals, attended the Union Club event.

The old norm was 4 percent to 5 percent unemployment (today it is nearly twice as much), rising home values and economic growth of 3 percent to 4 percent. It also meant a zero savings rate and mortgages that were many times larger than a person’s salary.

Sniderman noted that 2010 was less chaotic than 2009, but even now, “this hasn’t felt like much of a recovery.”

This has been the slowest recovery following a recession since World War II, he said.

Consumer spending remains tepid, people are saving more, and companies are still hesitant to hire, he said.

Sniderman was perhaps most pessimistic on the last point. The unemployment rate remains at 9.8 percent, with 15 million people looking for work. That’s nearly twice as many as were looking for work in 2007.

He expects unemployment to stay above 8 percent until at least 2013. That’s a grimmer view than some other experts have projected in pointing to better numbers by early next year.

Sniderman said the new normal for unemployment might be more like 5 percent to 6 percent, about a percentage point above historical norms.

Sniderman pointed out that his views don’t necessarily reflect the views of others at the Cleveland Federal Reserve or at the Federal Reserve Board.

Also sobering: Home prices, which had increased, have retrenched in recent months.

Sniderman does predict that inflation will remain below 2 percent for at least the next two years, but he noted that he thinks inflation is too low.

He said he supported the Fed’s controversial wide-scale purchase of Treasury bonds, although he said others have legitimate concerns about whether the purchase will help interest rates or cause inflation to spike or whether the economy was already on the mend without the move.

 

2011 Mileage Reimbursement Rates

On December 3rd, the IRS announced the standard mileage reimbursement rates for the New Year.

Starting on January 1, 2011, the following rates will apply to personal cars, minivans, trucks, SUVs and panel trucks:

• 14.0 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations
• 19.0 cents per mile driven for medical or moving purposes
• 51.0 cents per mile for business miles driven

These rates should be used to calculate the tax-deductible costs for using a car for business, charitable, medical, and moving purposes. The most common use of these mileage rates is to reimburse employees for expenses involving use of their own cars for business purposes.

The slightly higher rates in 2011 reflect higher fuel costs when compared to 2010 rates.