Businesses are beginning to hire temporary help and contract workers again, a good sign that the economy is improving.
"Those people, for many companies, comprise the contingent workforce, and they were the employees who were 'laid off' in the last recession," said Marshall Vest, director of economic and business research at the University of Arizona Eller College of Business and Public Administration. "We would expect employment to pick up in the contingent workforce before employers go out and hire permanent employees."
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The employment services sector grew from roughly 30,000 jobs in 1990 to a peak of 110,000 jobs in 2000. Arizona now has about 100,000 jobs in that industry. Many jobs lost in the recession have been recovered.
A&M Personnel Services has had a contract with the University of Arizona for 17 years to place temp-to-hire workers in clerical and accounting jobs.
Company president Tom Campbell said he has felt the trickle-down effects of the university spending less money and freezing vacant positions. The company made up for the loss of university business by filling jobs in real-estate related jobs including home building, a sector that is slowing now.
A&M's business has been down since 2001 and saw a low point at the end of 2002. Now, Campbell said he's hoping to see a slowly increasing job market.
"Who knows when people are going to start hiring like they did," he said. "I don't try to predict who's going to be hiring or when. I try to be well rounded in my marketing approach and not depend on any one sector to be hiring."
Trish Kleismit, a recruiter at a local Randstat employment agency, said she's seen better numbers for eight months. Nationwide, she said Randstat agencies have seen growth for about a year. She saw a low point in early 2002, and although the agency isn't placing as many people as it did five years ago, "we're certainly getting there. It's now an employers' market instead of an employees' market," Kleismit said.
Jobs in demand now are office support and general labor, with some skilled labor positions in technical fields also available, she said.
The Business Leaders Confidence Index showed 37.2 percent of panelists think the industries will increase hiring this quarter, but 52.6 percent expect no change in hiring.
In Tucson, Vest said, "I think you're going to see a lot better number on employment in the next few months." A number of industries like manufacturing and tourism-related sectors have declined and remain at depressed levels, but they will be the next to start hiring, Vest predicted.
Becky Pallack may be reached at (520) 294-1200, ext. 123, or by e-mail at bpallack@azbiz.com.
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