Staffing hours are behind 2025 levels
U.S. staffing hours were down 1.7% from the previous week, even though it was the first full week after the MLK holiday. Commercial hours were down even more for the week. Professional hours bounced back to their pre-holiday levels. But all three indexes are 3-5% behind the same week in 2025, suggesting a cooling labor market, though the Bullhorn Insights Hiring outlook shows a positive trendline for temporary placements, and contingent hiring can be a leading indicator of growing employer confidence.
IT Staffing Indicator
IT staffing hours rise almost 5%
Commentary for the week ending January 24, 2026
- The IT indicator jumped from 106 to 111, a substantial gain for the week.
- IT hours are just 1% behind the same week in 2025, the strongest showing for any segment.
Staffing Industry Analysts’ perspective
US Staffing hours were down -5% compared to the same week a year ago, driven by a similar -5% decrease in Commercial staffing hours. Professional staffing hours were down -3% y/y. The IT Staffing Indicator was down -1% y/y.
On a sequential, week-on-week basis, Commercial hours dropped slightly (-2.5%) in the last week of January. We note that unusually cold and snowy weather that week across much of the US (including Texas and Southeastern states) may have been a factor. It is also unclear whether the partial federal government shutdown that took affect at the very end of this week had any impact.
On the other hand, Professional hours bounced back (+3.2%) on a sequential basis from the MLK Holiday week, and almost matched their level from two weeks prior.
The outlook for temporary staffing remains clouded by factors such as slowing growth in the overall US labor market, moderately high interest rates, policy uncertainty, and uncertainty regarding the impact of AI, leading to a continued cautious approach to hiring from clients. Nevertheless, we highlight that heightened levels of uncertainty for staffing clients means a stronger value proposition for the use of a flexible or contingent workforce to help navigate fluctuations in business activity. For more insights, please see our US Economic and Labor Market Trends (November 2025), our February 2026 US Jobs Report, our US Staffing Industry Pulse Survey: January and our most recent US Staffing Industry Forecast Update.
About the SIA Bullhorn Staffing Industry Indicator
The SIA | Bullhorn Staffing Indicator is a unique tool for gauging near real time weekly trends in the volume of temporary staffing delivered by US staffing firms. Each week the Indicator reports data for the week that ended ten days prior to the release. It reflects weekly hours worked by temporary workers across a sample of staffing companies in the US that utilize Bullhorn’s technology solutions. The Indicator is weighted and benchmarked against US Bureau of Labor Statistics data to approximate the composition of the staffing industry by skill. While the indicator does not presume to perfectly reflect the entire universe of US staffing firms, it does represent a sizable sample of the US staffing industry, reflecting a wide range of occupations, client industry verticals, and geographic footprint that spans the country.
The Indicator can be used by staffing firms to benchmark their past and current performance, as well as a tool for forecasting near term industry trends and outlook.
As the US temporary staffing industry has often functioned as a co-incident indicator for the US labor market and economy, the SIA | Bullhorn Staffing Indicator is also useful for a broader audience of business leaders and investors who are seeking real-time insight.
The Indicator is a joint custom research effort between Bullhorn and industry advisor Staffing Industry Analysts.
Revisions and Technical notes on the SIA | Bullhorn Staffing Indicator
We note the readings for the last 4 weeks are subject to revision and so should be viewed as preliminary, with the reading for the last recorded week the most likely to be revised in next week’s data release. For further information on how the Indicator has been created and detailed technical notes please refer to the methodology.
