Taps Coogan – November 8th, 2020

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The ASA staffing index from the American Staffing Association has monitored the health of the temporary and contract worker industry in the US since 1992. A weekly survey is sent out to companies in 12 sectors covering most of the economy which assesses the strength of temp worker hiring, a key measure of marginal and short term growth in the economy. The results are converted into an index.

After taking a historic dive starting in the second half of March as the Covid lockdowns began, the index has finally crawled its way back to 85.78, slightly above its March 15th reading of 85.31, a fairly impressive sign of recovery in the economy. The index remains down over 11% year-over-year, although the index has been drifting lower in recent years despite the increasingly tight labor market, a trend which may actually be evidence of companies taking on employees permanently.

Where does the index go from here? That all depends on whether the US is going into lockdown again…

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