As the economy continues its slow march toward recovery, some firms are adding temporary staff members as consumer spending levels remain uncertain.
Bloomberg reports that companies around the United States are bringing on short-term workers at at a higher rate than ever before. In June, the number of people employed by temp-staffing agencies increased by 10.7 percent from its total during the same period last year according to data from the Labor Department, the source reports.
In an interview with Bloomberg, Kforce chief corporate officer Michael Blackman said that current economic conditions meant that companies were more likely to bring on temporary workers at a reasonable cost.
“[Companies are] looking for the minimum amount of expenditure on labor, the minimum amount of new hires you have to make to meet the pretty anemic GDP growth that we have right now,” he told the source.
There are a number of indicators suggesting that fewer companies are bringing on full-time staff members. The Labor Department revealed that only 80,000 jobs were added to payrolls during June, lower than the total of 90,000 that economists surveyed by CNN had predicted.