SIA triples 2026 staffing growth forecast to 2.4%

Staffing Industry Analysts now expects the US staffing industry to return to revenue growth in 2026 after three years of decline, and to do it faster than the firm expected previously. SIA raised its 2026 growth forecast to 2.4% from 0.8%, putting total revenue at a projected $183.1 billion, according to SIA's US Staffing Industry Forecast: September 2026 Update.

That would be expansion, not a return to form. Industry revenue peaked at $243 billion in 2022.

Nine of the 11 segments SIA tracks are projected to rise. Industrial is the fastest at 7% and the largest by revenue at an estimated $40.9 billion, lifted by better demand from manufacturing clients, a return to growth in transportation, warehousing and logistics, and a construction boom tied to data centers, power plants and factories.

Hyperscale and other large data centers have given staffing a stronger-than-expected lift as demand for skilled trades workers rises, per the forecast, and the electricity those facilities require has pulled through demand for new generation capacity, including fast-growing solar installation. Texas shows up across all of industrial staffing's key sectors, described in the report as a "hotbed for electrical generation buildouts, largely reflecting that Texas is the fastest growing state for solar power installation along with strength in traditional energy and oil and gas."

Healthcare, the second-largest segment, is forecast to grow just 1%, to $40.1 billion. Set against what came before, even that is a floor: revenue fell 8% in 2025, 26% in 2024 and 22% in 2023 as the pandemic boom unwound. SIA points to new orders rising over the past three months and a record year for hospital strikes, which can generate staffing demand.

Three smaller segments are forecast to hit their own records: locum tenens at $10.2 billion, engineering at $10.6 billion and education at $4.4 billion.

SIA attributes much of the three-year pullback to employers chasing perceived savings from cutting contingent spend, and says that is shifting. Timothy Landhuis, the firm's senior vice president of research, said many employers are re-engaging with staffing suppliers with an eye to growth, but added: "The big question is how large and how quickly will be the bounce back in the number of contingent workers."

That question sits against a labor market adding jobs slowly. Private payrolls rose 38,000 in August after a revised 46,000 in July, the smallest gain since the start of the year, according to ADP Research data released Sept. 2; economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected 47,000. Manufacturing payrolls fell in the month.