Staffing Industry Indicator

U.S. staffing hours remain at highest level of 2026

IT hours remain 6% ahead of 2025 levels

Light industrial hours are 14% ahead of where they were a year ago

Office/clerical hours decline slightly, remain -6% behind 2025

Staffing Industry Analysts’ perspective

US Staffing hours were up 9% compared to a year ago in the week ending August 8th and reached another year-to-date high. Commercial hours were up 11% y/y while Professional hours were up 8% y/y. On a skill segment level, Industrial occupation hours were up 14% y/y, IT occupation hours were up 6% y/y, and Office/Clerical hours were down -6% 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 July for a gain of 53,600 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 in June and July, 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 35.5 hours during the week ending August 8th, this is down slightly on the previous week (35.6), but up on the same week of the previous year (35.3). On average, Industrial occupations worked 36.6 hours per week while IT occupations averaged 37.5 hours.

We believe industrial staffing has benefitted this year from increased demand from manufacturing clients, as well as demand related to investment in 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 7,700 jobs each month from January through July, 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: March 2026 Update, our US Economic and Labor Market Trends (May 2026), and our August 2026 US Jobs Report.