Temp employment is leading indicator

June 22, 2009, 3:59 PM ET
Staffing Group: U.S. Payrolls To Expand Three Months After Temp Turnaround
By Sudeep Reddy
Temporary employment is often considered a leading indicator for the overall labor market. When temp employment turns around, the rest of the job market is supposed to flip as well.
How long should that take? Three months, the temp industry’s trade group, the American Staffing Association, said today. The group conducted an analysis of 36 years of government data with a consulting firm, the Inavero Institute for Service Research, to bolster the view that staffing industry employment is a strong coincident economic indicator when the economy is emerging from a recession. It’s a leading indicator (by three months) for non-farm payroll employment when the economy is coming out of a downturn, the group says.
Where does that leave us? Temp employment declined by 7,000 in May, while a broader category for business and professional services fell by 51,000 jobs for the month. So if the research holds up, the U.S. labor market won’t be adding jobs until September at the earliest (if the temp figure were to inch into positive territory this month). Given the latest payroll report — a loss of 345,000 jobs in May — September might not look so bad.

The Story on Richmond’s Entrepreneurs

The Story on Richmond’s Entrepreneurs
June 5, 2009 · No Comments
Entrepreneurship is alive and well in Richmond, VA – you’d know that already if you were at the Venture Forum’s Entrepeneur Fair today @ Capital One Town Center. Rich Reinecke, President of the Forum and founder of Career Quest, led the charge on making the Fair a really stellar event.
Of course there were sponsors – we all owe a debt of deep thanks to the Better Business Bureau, The Greater Richmond Partnership, the VA Council of CEOs, RichmondBizSense.com, CBS6/WTVR Digital Media, BluTiger, Cherry Bekaert Holland, FranNet, LeClairRyan, Mitchell Wiggins & Co., Strategy by Design, and the VA Biosciences Development Center, because without their support, and that of Capital One, the event wouldn’t have been nearly as successful (and it was luxurious, too).
Where the action really was, though, was in the great speed networking session facilitated by Ignite Speed Networking’s Mike Ogilvie, and the buffet of breakout sessions where budding, and established, business owners could learn from entrepreneurs who’ve been there, done that, and have the t-shirt (and hard lessons learned) to prove it.
Advice was available on:
buying a business
pitching your idea
how to transition from the corporate world to entrepreneurship
why entrepreneurship makes sense (you can control your destiny!)
what pitfalls to avoid
The Fair wrapped up with a panel of successful entrepreneurs, led by Steve Kimball of Tuscan Advisors. He made a very powerful statement that resonated with everyone in the room, and bears repeating here: Entrepreneurs are America’s competitive advantage.
How true – and cool – is that?
This is why I tell the job-seekers I talk to that they want to consider realigning their thinking: don’t think J-O-B, think B-I-Z.
If you’ve got an idea, there’s no time like the present. A down economy can be a great time to bring that idea to market – just ask the folks who started Cisco back in ‘87, on the heels of an epic market crash.
Think of your startup idea as a personal stimulus package.
That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it….