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Job numbers increase in May

Posted on June 4th, 2014 Read time: 2 minutes

Employment in the U.S. rose by 179,000 jobs in May, according to Automatic Data Processing's national employment report. The three month average, according to Staffing Industry Analysts, has been 198,000 per month.

Year over year, May has seen higher growth, but the number of jobs added in April was 215,000.

"Job growth moderated in May," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, which works with ADP to produce the report. "The slowing in growth was concentrated in professional/business services and companies with 50-999 employees. The job market has yet to break out from the pace of growth that has prevailed over the last three years."

The service sector added fewer jobs than in April, while the manufacturing sector added more jobs.

Any sign that the economy is expanding is a good thing for staffing companies. It is also a good thing for HR back office companies because the added burden on companies of extra employees can be reduced by hiring back office support. Temporary workers can also help with extra loads at work. They are often cheaper to hire in the short term than full-time workers.

In the Pulse survey, reported by Staffing Industry Analysts, growth in the staffing industry as a whole was 10 percent in April.

"We saw a deceleration in median year-over-year revenue growth in several major skill segments including office/clerical and IT staffing," said Research Associate Ziv Tepman.

IT Staffing saw growth of 9 percent in April year-over-year, while growth in March was 11 percent. Industrial revenue in contrast grew 15 percent in April year-over-year. In March it grew by 10 percent.

This may be part of a larger trend in which manufacturing becomes a major new hiring spot for temporary workers. However, Wanted Analytics reports that cyber security jobs are becoming extremely common, partly because of hiring from the FBI and The Pentagon.

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