US staffing hours reach 2026 high
U.S. staffing hours recovered from the Presidents Day holiday, hitting their highest level this year. The gains are driven largely by commercial hours, which extended their three-week upward trend, showing continued resilience. Both segments are 3% above the same week in 2025, marking the best comparative performance of the year. Professional hours also bounced back from the holiday week, with IT hours showing particular strength.
IT Staffing Indicator
IT staffing hours outpace 2025
Commentary for the week ending February 28, 2026
- The IT indicator rose from 109 to 114, a 4.3% sequential improvement.
- IT hours are 2% above where they were this week in 2025, IT hours have been above 2025 levels since January 10th
Staffing Industry Analysts’ perspective
US Staffing hours reached their highest level year-to-date in the week following the week containing the Presidents’ Day holiday. The
year-on-year comparison improved to +3%. IT staffing hours were up 2% from their level a year ago.
Both commercial and professional hours bounced back from the previous week dip caused in part by the Presidents’ Day holiday. The
SIA | Bullhorn Staffing Indicator historical data shows that the Presidents’ Day holiday has in recent years been marked by a greater dip in professional hours than commercial hours. There is also a geographic factor; while Presidents’ Day is a federal holiday, a number of states do not observe the holiday with work closures.
We note that the reference week for this report occurred predominantly before the start of the US attacks on Iran that began on
Saturday, February 28th. Therefore, these most recent Indicator readings do not reflect any meaningful impact from the Iran conflict. We
will be examining the coming weeks’ data for any signs of impact.
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, geopolitical shocks, and uncertainty regarding the impact of AI, leading to a continued cautious approach to hiring from clients. Nevertheless, 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 (March 2026), our March 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.
