IES Blog

March 14, 2014 Read time: 1 minutes

Jobless claims decreased in the week that ended March 8, which is a good sign the economy is improving. The number of people who filed for unemployment benefits decreased by 9,000 for the week to stand at a total of 315,000, according to the Labor Department. This is the lowest mark for jobless claims since…

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March 12, 2014 Read time: 1 minutes

The number of job openings in the U.S. increased in January. During the month, there were 60,000 job openings, which increased the current total amount of openings to 4 million, according to the Labor Department.The recent figures show employment is starting to increase throughout the country. Employment rose by 175,000 in February, which was a…

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March 10, 2014 Read time: 2 minutes

Despite the unemployment rate rising, the temporary staffing industry increased employment in February, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The U.S. added 24,400 temporary workers to payrolls in February, which increased the temporary penetration rate - temporary jobs compared to total nonfarm employment - to 2.03 percent in February from January's figure of…

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March 7, 2014 Read time: 1 minutes

Thanks to economic improvement, the staffing industry increased employment markedly in 2013, according to the American Staffing Association. The total amount of temporary and contract workers in 2013 was 11 million. The average amount of workers employed through temporary or contract work in 2013 was 3 million, a 4 percent increase from 2012.Temporary employment is beneficial…

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March 4, 2014 Read time: 1 minutes

The U.S. manufacturing industry showed positive growth in February, despite the harsh winter. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) index, which gauges manufacturing activity, increased to a reading of 53.2 for February, a jump for January's figure of 51.3, according to ISM.The growth in February is better than expected as respondents to a survey conducted by…

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February 28, 2014 Read time: 1 minutes

Confidence among workers in office and administrative positions has declined, according to the Randstad Office & Administrative Confidence Index. The index fell from 55.9 in the third quarter of 2013 to 47.6 in the fourth quarter. More workers are becoming likely to look for new jobs, and at the same time, workers are becoming less…

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February 27, 2014 Read time: 1 minutes

In a recent interview with Staffing Industry, Peter Sheahan, CEO of Changelabs, shared some of his thoughts on the changes happening in the staffing industry. According to Sheahan, there is a talent revolution occurring at this very moment. As he explains it, companies are beginning to outsource more and more, and this is causing a structural…

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February 26, 2014 Read time: 1 minutes

Staffing employment has gone up 1.74 percent since last month, according to the most recent American Staffing Agency Staffing Index Monthly Report.The index for February is 91, which indicates staffing employment has decreased slightly, by 0.54 percent over the last 30 days.These numbers are in keeping with recent predictions by Staffing Industry. Experts there predict…

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February 25, 2014 Read time: 1 minutes

Lately, the question many staffing firms have been asking, according to The Staffing Stream, is whether the firm or the customer should pay for the compliance costs associated with the Affordable Care Act. Don Dewar, who works for Sync Staffing, believes staffing firms should bill customers for ACA compliance without adding markups. Although that is…

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February 21, 2014 Read time: 1 minutes

Hinda Chalew of Staffing Industry writes brand loyalty is dead. In other words, the internet makes it easy to look up various facts and figures, and so individuals know exactly what to expect from a product before they buy it. A good example would be Yelp's impact on restaurants.The same impact that the internet has…

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