Staffing hours hit year-to-date highs across all segments

U.S. staffing hours are up 1.3% this week, surpassing the same week in 2025 by 2%. Commercial and professional hours also grew both sequentially and year over year. This is the first time all three main indicators have been up year over year since the summer of 2022. IT hours were largely stable this week, but remain above 2025 levels. And light industrial hours continue to gain momentum, increasing more than 2% this week and outpacing 2025 by 6%. Light industrial hours are benefiting from a weaker 2025 baseline, but nonetheless the segment has had a very strong year so far. Only office/clerical hours continue to show weakness and poor year-over-year comparisons. As the first quarter comes to a close, the staffing market appears to be gaining real momentum.

SIA | Bullhorn research

US staffing hours outpace 2025 for second week in a row

IT hours stable this week

Light industrial hours set a new high for 2026

Office/clerical hours continue to lose ground against 2025

Staffing Industry Analysts’ perspective

US Staffing grew on a Y/Y basis for the second consecutive week. The most recent prior period of sustained y/y growth was in September 2022, roughly three and a half years ago.

US Staffing hours have been standing at or improving on their highest level year-to-date since early March. Growth is being driven by Industrial occupations and IT occupations, with hours up 6% and 3%, respectively, on a Y/Y basis.

Looking at conditions a year ago, we note that staffing hours declined in the second half of April 2025 in part due to uncertainty created by the rollout of tariffs on April 2, 2025. This pullback in hours a year ago is likely to create an easier base of comparison and could contribute mildly to year-over-year growth in staffing hours in the coming weeks.

Average weekly hours worked per worker increased slightly sequentially to 35.4 hours and remained stable with a year ago. Trends in average weekly hours worked were up 1.0% on a year-over-year basis for the Industrial segment; and remained stable for Office/Clerical and IT staffing.

We note that the conflict in Iran has yet to show a visible negative impact on the US staffing industry, at least as far as we can tell. We will continue to keep an eye out for any impacts in future weeks of data.

Looking ahead, US temporary staffing continues to face headwinds in the form of sluggish growth in the overall US labor force, the conflict with Iran and shock to energy prices, low rates of labor turnover, policy uncertainty, and uncertainty regarding the impact of AI, leading to a cautious approach to hiring from clients. Nevertheless, on the bright side, according to the latest BLS estimates, US temporary help employment grew sequentially in November, January, and March, breaking the pattern of sequential declines that have defined much of the past three years. For more US staffing industry insights, please see our US Staffing Industry Forecast: March 2026 Update, our US Economic and Labor Market Trends (March 2026), and our April 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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