US staffing hour reach yet another new year-to-date high

U.S. staffing hours improved again this week, continuing the positive trend we have seen all year. Professional hours contributed more of the growth this week, showing larger gains than on the commercial side, a shift from recent months when commercial hours have been the bigger driver. In fact, professional hours are further ahead of 2025 than they have been all year. Commercial hours are 10% above the same week in 2025, down slightly from 12% last week, but still well ahead year on year. IT hours increased 1% this week, pushing the index to its highest level for 2026, a strong signal that IT is gaining momentum and driving gains in the professional index. Light industrial hours are up 13% year over year, slightly behind last week’s 15%, but still showing tremendous strength and achieving a new high point for the year Office/clerical hours increased 1% this week, meaning the segment is steadily -6% behind 2025.

SIA | Bullhorn research

Commercial hours remain at highest level of 2026

IT hours outpace 2025 by 6%, the best year-over-year performance of 2026

Light industrial hours reach the highest level of 2026, 13% ahead of 2025

Office/clerical hours improve this week, but remain well behind 2025

Staffing Industry Analysts’ perspective

US Staffing hours were up 9% compared to a year ago in the week ending August 1st and reached another year-to-date high. Commercial hours were up 10% y/y while Professional hours were up 8% y/y. On a skill segment level, Industrial occupation hours were up 13% y/y, IT occupation hours were up 6% y/y, and Office/Clerical hours were down -6% y/y.

Looking at the first half of 2026, 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 recently. 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 increased to 35.6 hours during the week ending August 1st. On average, Industrial occupations worked 36.6 hours per week while IT occupations averaged 37.6 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, breaking 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.

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 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 staffing firms, it does represent a sizable sample of the 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.

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