What, you say? But I’m a staffing firm, and my domain is the staffing market!
I’ve been in the staffing industry for 40 years and in all that time, I never once generated a billable hour into the industry average. My hours fell into a segment, a region, a client. The distinction I’m making here matters more now than ever.
The latest SIA/Bullhorn Staffing Indicator was released, and the headline is great. US staffing hours hit a new year-to-date high, up 10 percent over last year and up 7.2 percent over the prior week. If you read only that line, you’d think the whole industry has turned the corner.
A number that fresh invites a clear conclusion. But here’s a dose of truth:
There’s no such thing as the staffing market.
There’s only your slice of it, and the average hides it.
Look deeper into the report and the single number splits into very different realities. Light industrial staffing jumped 15 percent over last year. IT rose 6 percent. Professional staffing sits at an index of 121, well above the 2019 baseline of 100. And office/clerical fell 8 percent, sitting at an index of 59, which means those hours are 40 percent below where the index started. One firm is booming, and another is shrinking, while the average calls it a 10% recovery.
The industry average is the one number that describes no one.
That is the secret trap in a report like this. If your vertical is light industrial and you read the headline, you understand how strong your ‘market’ really is. If, however, your vertical is office professionals and you read the same headline, you begin looking for a recovery that hasn’t yet arrived. Your ‘market’ is not up 10 percent. It’s doing exactly what it’s doing, and that’s the only number worth paying attention to.
So find your own number before you react to anyone else’s. Look at your trends over the prior periods and see what is really happening in your world, not the industry’s. Then, act on what you see.
If you are in a growth vertical, the risk is complacency. Add capacity now, press the advantage while demand is strong, and price to the value you are delivering instead of leaving money on the table.
If you are in a soft vertical, the headline is not a rescue. It’s a signal to sharpen your positioning, deepen relationships with your current clients, and look hard at the adjacent demand that is growing. The report even tells you where it is.
This is where a great marketing partner who knows staffing earns its keep. Generic marketing chases the headlines. The right marketing is built around your firm, your resources, and your buyers. It creates the demand that is real for you and not the average that describes no one.