With the economy steadily improving and more businesses looking for highly-skilled employees, the need for contract workers continues to increase.
According to the 2013 Q1 IQNdex by IQNavigator, staffing firms are charging companies more to use their services and are seeing a rise in the employment of short-term staff. The quarterly index examines the percentage of contract employees within the labor market and rates them on a point scale. The index found 11 percent of the half a million new jobs added in the year's first quarter were staffed by short-term employees.
Gary Pollard, vice president of information products at IQNavigator, said this is hard evidence that the staffing industry will continue to grow within the next few years.
"While the overall job market remains weak, the Q1 IQNdex report shows that demand for non-permanent workers in the U.S. is strong, indicating that employers are utilizing temporary labor as a means of expanding their workforce rather than traditional full-time employees," Pollard said. "The data shows that companies are hiring people with specialized skills who spearhead growth-oriented projects that often lead to the hiring of traditional employees at a later date."