Analysis of the national employment figures just released indicates a slowdown in hiring, as the recovery makes slow headway, according to a new report released by the Conference Board.   There are a fair number of contributing factors, but the sum total is that there’s no pronounced, steady and strong uptick happening yet.

“Employment growth has been slow lately, and the employment trends index suggests that it may slow even further this fall,” said Gad Levanon, associate director. “However, we still expect job growth rather than an outright decline in the next several months.”

Temporary hiring showed signs of life, however, that bode well for the long term prospects of the rest of the economy, at least according to analysis by the Labor Department.

Temporary employment rose as well. It’s often considered a sign of future growth because employers will hire temporary workers as a recovery takes hold and then eventually hire new, full-time staff.

It may be a sign of the difficult times we’ve been through of late: a recent poll indicates that 23% of employers are seeing internship applications from mature, experienced workers, people who are pursuing the same positions as college students.  Internships obviously provide jobseekers with a way to “audition” for permanent roles, and give them a chance to pick up new experience and skills.  Other indications from the survey?

Regardless of applicants’ ages, more than one-quarter (27 percent) of employers said they plan to hire interns during the remainder of 2010 to help support workloads. Fourteen percent said they anticipate hiring paid interns, while 7 percent said they won’t be paying their interns. An additional 5 percent said they will hire both paid and unpaid interns. Fifty-three percent of employers said they plan to pay interns $10 or more per hour, while 5 percent said they will pay $25 or more per hour.

Let’s be clear about the considerable distinctions between internships and temporary or contingent hiring: the latter usually require specific, established skills that are put to the job immediately tackling very imminent challenges.  Internships can provide support for permanent staff, but almost always not in the kind of jobs that are critical to a company’s core success.  Often, as the survey goes on to indicate, they’re in maintenance or errand-heavy roles, where they’re peripheral to real responsibilities.

We’re happy to say we’ve been recognized with an Award of Merit in the Company Web Site category for our recently-updated Web site, in the 2010 American Staffing Association VOICE Awards!

As the ASA Web site explains,

“ASA member companies were recognized for the vision, originality, innovation, creativity, and effectiveness (VOICE) of their communications campaigns.”

This national annual awards program recognizes the best ASA member communications campaigns in 16 categories, from direct mail to public service.

We’ve had nothing but compliments about our site, which was developed by our friends at Biersma Creative.  It’s not only contemporary and logical to navigate, but it’s rich with detail about our people and our services, and (we think) projects a real “sense of place” about our being a Chicago-based company that knows and understands the staffing market here in our hometown.  Plus, we’ve designed it to provide a reliable source of information and counsel for both companies and candidates.

A complete list of winners will be published in an upcoming issue of Staffing Week newsletter, and more about the competition and the judges will be featured in the November–December 2010 issue of Staffing Success magazine.

As we’ve posted before, growth in the temporary services sector usually leads recovery in the permanent jobs market.  All told, about 379,000 temporary jobs have been added to the rolls since September of 2010, and growth in that area will probably continue — especially since employers are still hesitant about the recovery, and because there’s evidence that temporary and contingent staffing will be a larger and more permanent trend in employment going forward.

That said, there are still myths, half-truths and outright falsehoods out there that every temp candidate may have heard — and that should be dispelled with the facts.

Temp jobs are bottom-of-the-barrel: The truth is, many temp jobs are for specialized or general positions at middle and upper level of organizations, from legal to IT and beyond.  Temp hires aren’t always the “seat fillers” of the employment world, somehow comparable to migrant labor…nearly every job on the corporate org chart could be filled by a temporary hire.  Interestingly, one example is Ed Whitacre, the recent chairman of General Motors — he was strictly transitional in the job, coming on to get the company from Point A to Point B in its restructuring.  An extreme example?  Sure.  But it’s a honest example of the nature of a lot of temporary positions, as companies look for quality people to help them in specific situations.

Temp jobs aren’t challenging: See above.  Often, they’re among the most challenging in the organization, because they deal with circumstances that are unusual, and require skillsets that are lacking in the current staff, but are sorely needed — often in a hurry — to tackle the job at hand.

Temp jobs pay poorly: Quite commonly they pay better, at least on a cash-per-hour basis, than salaried jobs, because of the need for highly-qualified people to come in and immediately deal with significant challenges.   And employers often allow temporary and contingency employees to access the same benefits as their permanent staffers, which can even include skills training programs.

Don’t put them on the resume: On the contrary, a jobseeker should definitely include temporary positions on their credentials, if only for the sake of honesty.  And if they worked in a skilled or specialty position where you attacked special challenges, there’s absolutely no reason you should exclude that experience!

Temp job seekers pay fees to work with a staffing firm: Respectable staffing firms never charge candidates, because fees are covered by their client companies.

Temp work will get in the way of finding permanent work: It’s almost the opposite — not only does temp work provide flexibility, in many cases, that lets you devote time to pursuing a permanent job, but many employers use temporary positions as a way to audit candidates for full-time roles.

It’s unfortunate if any of these assumptions keeps even one good prospect out of the candidate pool.  So part of  the job of a good recruitment professional is to help dispel these kinds of assumptions about temporary employment, and make sure a truer picture is shown.

The July employment figures were disappointing to many, and a sign that we’re not out of this yet, especially since tempoarary hiring also hit a snag during the period.  Temp jobs are augurs of future full-time employment, so the sluggishness of the July results doesn’t bode very well:

Temporary hiring (part of the professional services group) fell for the first time in 10 months, down by 5,600.

How soon a recover reasserts itself remains to be seen, but numbers like these often have a self-fulfilling effect, as employers become increasingly cautious — looking at the numbers! — and postpone making new hires, especially permanent ones.  Again, the best solution for critical staffing needs in times like these remains temporary and contingent staffing, if you’re an employer who’s still treading lightly.

Based on our own experience at North Bridge and some of the best practices at large in the recruitment and staffing industry, these are some pretty worthy tips for any organization looking to bring on temporary or contingent employees.

One good rule of thumb, to start?  Approach temp hiring with the same standards and expectations you’d have in mind if you were looking for permanent employees.  Your business deserves the best possible people on staff, regardless of how long they’ll be on the team!

1. Know thy market: the depth of talent in a given category can vary greatly market-to-market; a national surplus of widget engineers doesn’t necessarily mean your area has the same profile.  Work with your staffing firm to make sure you know the real availability of the types of role players you need, or may soon need, so you’ve got a true picture of how long it will take to land the talent you want so you can project accordingly.
2. Be precise with your recruiting firm in terms of skillsets you need, and the salary range you’ll offer.  That will obviously help narrow the field to candidates you can really afford – and will save you considerable time, of course.
3. Move it or lose it, because even in times like these, the best candidates go first – and you’d better be prepared to get in front of them quickly and decisively, whether they’re temporary or permanent hires.
4. Set benchmarks for what constitutes success for your temps, just as surely as you would for a full-time hire.  Measure their contribution: it’s surprising how many businesses think there’s some sort of efficiency in throwing people at a task or problem simply because they’re temporaries.  It’s still money ill-spent if you’re not auditing results.
5. Ask around: get perspective from others in the organization about how a temp could be put to work on its behalf.  There may be needs beyond the obvious assignment where an interim hire could make an impact, especially if they’ve got specific expertise that could benefit different facets of your enterprise.
6. Let the recruiter inside your organization, so they can have a good handle on its organization, culture, expectations and projects.  The time you spend indoctrinating a recruiter will pay off in better candidates.
7. Vette your recruiters thoroughly, because just as in any business, there are good and not-so-good providers out there.  There’s absolutely no substitute for the due diligence and quality of service you clearly find in a good recruiter – and they should be proud to offer up referrals who’ll testify to that!

2,300 new jobs for the city’s poorest kids? It’s a great addition to other summer jobs initiatives that City Hall is promoting.  As the story points out, they’re the kids most likely to fall prey to a life of crime and gangbanging, so any effort to keep them off the streets and give them a taste of the pride and sense of self-worth that comes with gainful employment is a positive.  Especially with unemployment being the worst for young people since World War II, according to Jack Wuest, executive director of the Alternative Schools Network.

“It’s a really tough time economically. And it’s good to get these kids off the streets and give `em a chance to earn some money during the summer. … They bring money for themselves and their families at a time when there’s very little money out there.”

The economic recover may be struggling a bit as it tries to gain traction, but it doesn’t seem to deter “job hoppers” like those profiled in this RedEye article, predominantly young people who have come to believe that transient, temporary jobs are the desired norm, and that the old paradigm of lifetime employment may be obsolete.  As Lindsey Pollak, author of “Getting from College to Career” puts it:

“The whole paradigm of how we work is completely changing. That old model of get one job out of college till you retire with a gold watch is completely, utterly gone.”

This new workforce — educated, highly mobile, not just accepting of transitional or temporary employment but sometimes even enthusiastic in their adoption of it — makes for a dynamic and vibrant new labor pool for hiring firms and staffing departments to take into consideration.

We’re happy to introduce you to Jessica Stacy, Account Executive, the newest member of the North Bridge team.  With over 4 years of sales experience, and a “work hard, play hard” mentality that will be a huge asset to our clients,  Jessica was drawn to North Bridge’s mission of continuously exceeding client objectives by finding the perfect candidate fit.

As her bio puts it, Jessica’s greatest achievement in life — thus far — was winning the Women’s Basketball National Championship in college.  She also enjoys working out, beach volleyball, photography, and going out with friends, and has a real passion for traveling.  We’re happy to have her on board, and we’re positive our clients will appreciate her intensity and dedication as well!

There are various theories as to why the jobs picture hasn’t been as positive as some have hoped.  The most recent unemployment figures posted by the government show only a modest improvement.  That’s largely because employers — and consumers — don’t entirely trust the recovery that seems to be underway, and are wary about spending — which means companies have to keep it lean and mean.

For staffing and recruitment firms, it obviously means embracing strategies that let them meet employers’ needs for highly-qualified and capable people who must fit into temporary or qualified positions.   But they also need to be mindful of the fact that the picture may change — upward or, unfortunately, downwards (if there’s a “double dip” recession), and they’ll have to make the corresponding changes right in stride in order to stay competitive!