Staffing Industry Indicator

Commercial hours set a new year-to-date high

IT hours have their best week of the year

Light industrial hours are 16% above this week in 2025

Office/clerical hours remain stable, but fall further behind 2025

Staffing Industry Analysts’ perspective

US Staffing hours were up 10% compared to a year ago in the week ending August 29th and reached a new year-to-date high. Commercial hours were up 12% y/y while Professional hours were up 8% y/y. On a skill segment level, Industrial occupation hours were up 16% y/y, IT occupation hours were up 6% y/y (both reaching new year-to-date highs), and Office/Clerical hours were down -7% y/y.

Looking at the month-to-month trend so far this year, both Commercial and Professional staffing hours have displayed a positive sequential growth trend. This is consistent with data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics that shows employment in Temporary Help Services grew every month from January to August for a gain of 68,100 such jobs.

Industrial staffing hours have shown impressive growth in recent months. Industrial hours showed a notable ramp in late April and May, reaching double digit year-over-year growth. Then between June and August, Industrial staffing hours appear to have ramped up even further. More insight on the industrial segment can be found in our recently published Industrial Staffing Growth Assessment report.

The average weekly hours worked per worker was 35.6 hours during the week ending August 29th, stable compared with the previous week (35.5), and up versus the same week of the previous year (35.1). On average, Industrial occupations worked 36.8 hours per week while IT occupations averaged 37.7 hours.

We believe industrial staffing has benefitted this year from increased demand from the manufacturing and logistics sectors, as well as demand related to data centers. Demand for professional staffing has come from clients moving forward on projects that had previously been paused, as well as from new projects related to AI readiness and transformation. According to the latest BLS estimates, US temporary help employment has grown an average of roughly 8,500 jobs each month from January through August, in contrast to the pattern of sequential declines that characterized the period from 2023 to 2025. For more US staffing industry insights, please see our US Staffing Industry Forecast: September 2026 Update, our US Economic and Labor Market Trends (May 2026), and our September 2026 US Jobs Report.