2005 a Good Year for Staffing Jobs Growth

2005 a Good Year for Staffing Jobs Growth

As celebrants around the world rung in the New Year almost two weeks ago, staffing firms had reason to celebrate as well. Staffing firm job growth grew 6.8% over the course of 2005, according to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Firms staffing temporary employees added over 9,000 jobs in December alone, which represents an increase of 6.3% over December, 2004.

All told, the number of jobs added by the staffing industry reached 156,000 during the course of the year, and while staffing job growth slowed a bit during the last two quarter of the year, December marked the 30th straight month of growth.

The BLS further reported a slight drop in unemployment, from 5.0% in November to 4.9% in December, 2005.

The month of December also saw manufacturing employment increase by 18,000, with most of those gains coming in the durable goods area, which added 15,000 jobs.

In construction, overall employment numbers saw little change after a strong month of growth in November, 2005. Over 246,000 construction jobs were added over the course of the past year, despite the slowdown in December.

Healthcare employment grew by 21,000 jobs in December, with an overall addition of 271,000 jobs in 2005.