Staffing Industry Indicator

Commercial hours 4% above 2025

IT hours bounce back after holiday

Light industrial hours beat 2025 by 6%

Office/clerical hours improve slightly

Staffing Industry Analysts’ perspective

US Staffing hours grew 2% compared to the year ago trend, in the second week following Easter. Commercial hours were up 4% and Professional hours increased by 1%. Furthermore, Industrial and IT staffing reported the strongest Y/Y trends, up 6% and 2%, respectively.

These trends match the positive momentum observed in the weeks leading to this year’s Easter weekend, when the Indicator saw two consecutive weeks of Y/Y growth. For perspective, the most recent prior period of sustained Y/Y growth was in September 2022, roughly three and a half years ago.

Up until the Easter weekend, US Staffing hours have been standing at or improving on their highest level year-to-date since early March. Growth is being driven by Industrial occupations and IT occupations, with hours up 6% and 2%, respectively, compared to year ago trends. In contrast, staffing in Office/Clerical occupations was down 5%.

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 is likely to create an easier base of comparison and could contribute mildly to year-over-year growth in staffing hours in the coming week reports.

Average weekly hours worked per worker increased sequentially to 35.2 hours, bouncing back from the dip in hours on either sides of the Easter weekend.

We note that the conflict in Iran has yet to show a meaningful 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 November, January, and March, 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 April 2026 US Jobs Report.