On March 27, 2024, Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA) reported during their Executive Forum in Las Vegas, in a keynote address by their chief analyst Barry Asin, that staffing industry revenue was down 15% during 2023. He also noted that the industry usually tracks well with overall GDP growth yet with GDP up overall, the staffing industry, at minus 15%, was obviously an outlier last year. Although this single-year decline is not a trend, SIA forecasts that the staffing industry will continue to decline in 2024 but at a much lower percentage, i.e., 3% annually. In attempting to explain why the 1 ..read more

“The long arm of the law” has been catching up with Gig Platforms, forcing them to come under federal, state, and municipal laws. Over the last few years, much of the legislation has involved the initially “presumed” and increasingly challenged status of Gig workers as Independent Contractors. As “the new kid on the block”, and often operating worldwide via cloud-based, digital platforms, it has been difficult for governments to regulate them. We have written on these platforms and the attempt to regulate them since October 8, 2019, with other articles on October 18, 2020 and February 25, 2021 ..read more

Three respected business forecasting groups agree that 2024 looks good. The Conference Board reported in February that 2024 “started on a strong footing with various indicators of business activity, labor markets, sentiment, and inflation are moving in a favorable direction”. While they had forecast a recession for 2024, they were “upgrading” that forecast and no longer predicting one for this year. Also reporting in February, The National Association of Business Economics (NABE) said that the outlook for this year is brighter than first thought”.  They increased their prediction for over ..read more

Amazon has 9.7 million sellers and 100 million shoppers in the US alone. The eBay has 170 million shoppers every month. Etsy has about 7.47 million sellers. Note: A person or company can operate as more than one seller. Generally, Etsy operates together on one platform. What allows these giants to add stores or sellers and seamlessly give each access to its functionalities like search tools, display space, order information, checkout, payment processing, etc.  is a software tool called an “Application Programming Interface” or API. There are thousands of them customized for many thousands ..read more

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) completed a survey of what employers are looking for in new college graduates this past September and published an article on their website on January 16, 2024 that highlighted their findings. Those findings, although surprising in some details, were consistent with  another trend we reported last month (January 14th, 2024)of the significant drop in the college degree requirement for new hires. That trend really began in 2023 when 55% of surveyed businesses reported that they dropped the college degree requirement that year, and th ..read more

What started as a major event last year (2023) with 55% of companies eliminating the requirement of a bachelor’s degree for some of their job titles, this trend will continue into 2024 with 45% of companies reporting that they will be doing the same, survey by intelligent .com. The survey was conducted in November 2023 and included 800 employers. The reasons they cite are many, but a major one is to increase the number of potential candidates in a tight labor market. They plan to use experience as their major criteria, with 80% of employers saying they value experience over education. Another ..read more

A lot has been said about the changing “world of work” in terms of technology(Automation, AI, etc.), government regulations, the economy, wages, etc., but this article will focus on the sociology and psychology of work, or, to put it more simply, the human dimensions of work. In our blog writing we have reviewed many surveys of workers giving feedback on what they like and dislike, what they want to achieve besides a paycheck, what kind of “climate” they want in their workplace, what outlets for creativity, learning, and personal growth, balancing personal and family life, etc… Some commentato ..read more

The good news is that no one seems to be talking about a recession in 2024, as many were just a few months ago (summer 2023). There is also some really good news for the staffing industry reported by Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA) on December 7, 2023. They were reporting on a survey of 1,850 managers with hiring responsibility, done by the New York Stock Exchange company, Robert Half International Inc. The title of the article/report was “Resilient Job Market forecast for first half of 2024, Robert Half Reports.”. Their survey results show that more than half of the respondents (57%) “plan t ..read more

On the top block (and elsewhere) of the Home page of “Ernst and Young LLP”, the American affiliate of London based, international financial and Legal services company, Ernst and Young Global, the major subject was Artificial Intelligence (AI). The leading text-link on the page was titled “How Organizations can stop the skyrocketing use of AI from fueling anxiety?”Good question. The link goes to a very recent survey article dated December 5th, 2023, that the company took of 1,000 office workers about their own and their company’s use of AI and their concerns about it. This survey’s results are ..read more

Here is a great convenience for your company, saving lots of time and money while delivering a great bundle of gifts for your employees, whether they have existing bank accounts or not. I remember when staffing companies paid day laborers in cash. Small, brown, sealed envelopes with an outside printed format for names and withholding details.I remember because I was paid that way on a number of occasions while in college. So, when this trend of paying day laborers and many others via debit cards began, I cheered. It is another great, technology enabled, advance. Seamlessly built into your comp ..read more