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Is it time to find a new job?
That’s the question I asked myself when I walked out of Barry Asin’s opening keynote presentation.
I’m sure it is not a surprise to anyone reading this that the industry has been having a rough go the past 18+ months. Barry gave us the data.
- 20% overall industry decline since 2022
- 640,000 reduction in average daily temp jobs
- Industry penetration rate at 1.59% (pre-Great Recession levels)
And the worst of all, travel nursing with a decline of more than 59% since its 2022 peak.
Ouch.
If that didn’t leave you feeling cheery, here’s some additional news…
Seven of the ten largest staffing companies have launched or are launching online staffing platforms.
AI is EVERYWHERE at this conference…and looking to disintermediate or eradicate a lot of the value recruiters and salespeople have traditionally provided.
To top it all off, staffing growth has decoupled from GDP growth. Instead of growing around 6%, which the industry should have grown based on GDP changes, everyone except Locums and Education are down.
What the heck is going on? That’s the question on everyone’s mind.
SIA attributed the industry’s struggles to several causes:
- Pullback from unsustainable levels in 2022 (particularly in travel nursing).
- Caution and uncertainty.
- Weakness in domestic manufacturing.
- A general labor shortage that has made temp help more expensive relative to hiring.
- Good people being hard to find, causing employers to prefer FTEs to temps.
- Growth of alternatives (SOW, talent platforms, direct sourcing)
So, what should you do?
Hence the question at the start of this SMART IDEA.
Barry’s question to the audience was this: How will your business evolve?
Things are not going to go back to “the good old days.” The staffing industry is fundamentally changing thanks to a combination of technology and consumer behavior (changes in the ways people want to work and employers want to hire).
But it’s not all bad news.
With change comes opportunity, and what’s going on right now may offer you the greatest chance to scale your business to new heights.
So, what are your growth options?
Here are a few ideas from the conference:
- Become a tech-first, AI-powered marketplace for talent in a specific niche or geography.
- Be a niche player with deep relationships with specific kinds of talent or employers.
- Move up the value chain to do more than staffing—this includes outsourced solutions or other functions that fall under the category of “Total Talent Management” (see image below).
- Expand beyond temporary staffing to assist with the management of independent contractors (the IC market is 3x larger than staffing!
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