US staffing hours hold at year-to-date highs as industrial jumps 12%

US staffing hours rose 7% year over year in the week ended September 5, adjusted for Labor Day, and remained at year-to-date highs, according to Staffing Industry Analysts’ report on the SIA | Bullhorn Staffing Indicator. Industrial hours rose 12%. Across the indicator, hours rose 0.2% from the previous week.

Manufacturing demand and data center investment helped drive industrial growth. Professional staffing hours increased 6% from a year earlier, including a 3% gain in IT, while office and clerical hours fell 7%.

Employers’ growth expectations are stronger than their hiring intentions: 61% expect revenue growth by 2027, but 50% plan to add headcount, according to StaffingHub’s account of employer research. Those figures point to a gap between business growth and workforce expansion, rather than an equivalent increase in hiring demand.

Industrial’s current strength also contrasts with its longer-term employment outlook. Industrial staffing accounts for 51.1% of staffing employment, but its headcount is projected to grow just 2.4% through 2034, compared with 3.1% for industrial occupations overall, according to an American Staffing Association analysis using Bureau of Labor Statistics projections and the current staffing mix across occupations.

The distinction is in the jobs being filled. Industrial occupations currently served by staffing firms are projected to grow more slowly than other jobs in the sector, the ASA analysis says. Production employment is forecast to lose 100,000 jobs by 2034, while transportation and material-moving occupations are expected to add 580,000.

By comparison, ASA projects 8.5% staffing employment growth through 2034 in both healthcare and the combined engineering, IT and scientific sector. Professional and managerial staffing is projected to grow 3.1%; office and clerical staffing is forecast to decline 3.9%.