All indexes hit year-to-date highs
U.S. staffing hours rebounded after a slow week, possibly related to severe cold weather across much of the country. Hours improved in U.S. staffing, commercial, and professional, and IT hours remained largely unchanged. Commercial hours saw the biggest improvement, which is not surprising if last week’s pullback was weather-related. Hours remain below where they were heading into the 2025 holiday season, but are seasonally appropriate and suggest a strong start to 2026.
IT Staffing Indicator
IT staffing hours remain on par with 2025
Commentary for the week ending February 7, 2026
- The IT indicator declined from 113 to 112, a -0.5% change.
- IT hours are at the same level they were this week in 2025, the strongest showing for any segment.
Staffing Industry Analysts’ perspective
US Staffing hours improved in the first full week of February, reaching their highest levels year-to-date. While the y/y growth rates caught up with pre-MLK Day trends, overall staffing hours remain slightly below the levels for the same week a year ago. IT staffing hours improved slightly on a week-on-week basis, and have pulled even with their levels from a year ago.
On a sequential, week-on-week basis, Commercial hours increased strongly (5.4%), in part due to recovery from the unusually cold and snowy conditions that negatively impacted the previous week. Professional hours grew 1.0% week-on-week.
Looking ahead, US temporary staffing continues to face headwinds in the form of sluggish growth in the overall US labor market, low rates of voluntary turnover, policy uncertainty, and uncertainty regarding the impact of AI, leading to a continued cautious approach to hiring from clients. On the bright side, according to the latest BLS estimates, temporary help employment grew sequentially in November, December, and January, suggesting a potential turning point toward a more positive trajectory for the staffing industry. 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.
