Both commercial and professional staffing hours continue to build momentum

For the third straight week, staffing hours have increased in all three core segments. This puts all segments at their highest levels of 2026. Commercial hours continue to show the strongest momentum, but it is encouraging to see both the commercial and professional segments building on the positive trends from the first quarter. IT staffing hours rose slightly and remained 3% above where they were in 2025, signaling stabilization and possibly moderate growth. Light industrial staffing is still the main driver of the positive trend in staffing hours, up 1.6% this week and 9% ahead of 2025. Office/clerical hours have remained flat for the past three weeks. Although this segment continues to lag, the year-over-year trend has been improving for the last year.

SIA | Bullhorn research

US staffing hours hit new year-to-date high

IT hours show third straight week of growth

Light industrial hours set new high for 2026

Office/clerical hours decline but narrow YoY gap

Staffing Industry Analysts’ perspective

US Staffing hours reached another year-to-date high and were up 4% compared to a year ago. Commercial hours were up 7% y/y and Professional hours were up 2% y/y. On a skill segment basis, Industrial occupation hours were up 9% y/y and IT occupation hours were up 3% y/y, while Office/Clerical hours were down 4% y/y.

The positive sequential growth trends are consistent with last week’s data release from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’s May 2026 US Jobs Report which reported four straight months of growth in Temporary Help Services employment.

Looking at conditions a year ago, we note that staffing hours declined in the second half of April 2025 in part due to uncertainty created by the rollout of tariffs on April 2, 2025. This pullback in hours a year ago creates an easier base of comparison and contributes to the robust y/y growth in this week’s report.

Average weekly hours worked per worker were stable at 35.4 hours. On average, Industrial temp workers clocked in 36.6 hours in the latest week and IT workers performed 37.7 hours.

The conflict in Iran has yet to show a meaningful direct negative impact on the US staffing industry, at least as far as we can tell. We will continue to keep an eye out for any impacts in future weeks of data.

Looking ahead, US temporary staffing continues to face headwinds in the form of sluggish growth in the overall US labor force, low rates of labor turnover, policy uncertainty, and uncertainty regarding the impact of AI, leading to a cautious approach to hiring from clients.

Nevertheless, on the bright side, according to the latest BLS estimates, US temporary help employment grew sequentially in January, February, March, and April, breaking the pattern of sequential declines that have defined much of the past three years. For more US staffing industry insights, please see our US Staffing Industry Forecast: March 2026 Update, our US Economic and Labor Market Trends (March 2026), and our May 2026 US Jobs Report.

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 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 staffing firms, it does represent a sizable sample of the 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.

Want to stay up to date on US temporary staffing trends?

Subscribe for timely trends, data, and analysis

Join thousands of recruitment pros who subscribe to Bullhorn Insights to receive exclusive trends and data, powered by Bullhorn.

shape of squares