US staffing index remains at highest level of 2026

Overall, staffing hours were largely stable this week. U.S. staffing hours remained near the year-to date high set last week, down just 0.5% with the index holding at 95 for the second consecutive week. Commercial hours dipped slightly, but continue to perform strongly for the year. Based on the new segment breakouts of light industrial and office/clerical, we see resilience in commercial hours is driven almost entirely by light industrial hours, which are up 3%, compared to the same week in 2025. In contrast, the office/clerical segment shows the weakest performance against the 2019 benchmark, down 8%, compared to 2025. Professional staffing hours were largely stable, just 1% below 2025 levels, which is the strongest comparison of the year so far.

This week, the SIA | Bullhorn Staffing Indicator has been updated to reflect new occupation-level classification of staffing hours. This shift has been applied to the entire historical data set to keep the trend lines consistent.

SIA | Bullhorn research

US staffing hours are stable for the week

IT hours remain 2% above 2025

Light industrial hours continue to show resilience in Q1

Office/clerical hours show continued weakness sequentially and YoY

Staffing Industry Analysts’ perspective

US Staffing hours remained close to their highest level year-to-date, reached in the first week of March. The momentum was driven by Industrial hours, which increased by 3% on a Y/Y basis.

Similarly, IT staffing hours were up 2% from their level a year ago. Furthermore, IT staffing hours remained near their highest level year-to-date, reached last week.

We note that the conflict in Iran has yet to show a visible negative impact on the US staffing industry, at least as far as we can tell. We will continue to keep an eye out for any impacts in future weeks of data.

Looking ahead, US temporary staffing continues to face headwinds in the form of sluggish growth in the overall US labor market, the conflict with Iran and shock to energy prices, low rates of labor turnover, policy uncertainty, and uncertainty regarding the impact of AI, leading to a cautious approach to hiring from clients. Nevertheless, on the bright side, according to the latest BLS estimates, US temporary help employment grew sequentially in November and January, breaking the pattern of sequential declines that have defined much of the past three years. For more US staffing industry insights, please see our US Economic and Labor Market Trends (March 2026), our March 2026 US Jobs Report.

About the SIA Bullhorn Staffing Industry Indicator

The SIA | Bullhorn Staffing Indicator is a unique tool for gauging near real time weekly trends in the volume of temporary staffing delivered by staffing firms. Each week the Indicator reports data for the week that ended ten days prior to the release. It reflects weekly hours worked by temporary workers across a sample of staffing companies in the US that utilize Bullhorn’s technology solutions. The Indicator is weighted and benchmarked against US Bureau of Labor Statistics data to approximate the composition of the staffing industry by skill. While the indicator does not presume to perfectly reflect the entire universe of staffing firms, it does represent a sizable sample of the staffing industry, reflecting a wide range of occupations, client industry verticals, and geographic footprint that spans the country.

The Indicator can be used by staffing firms to benchmark their past and current performance, as well as a tool for forecasting near term industry trends and outlook.

As the US temporary staffing industry has often functioned as a co-incident indicator for the US labor market and economy, the SIA | Bullhorn Staffing Indicator is also useful for a broader audience of business leaders and investors who are seeking real-time insight.

The Indicator is a joint custom research effort between Bullhorn and industry advisor Staffing Industry Analysts.

Revisions and Technical notes on the SIA | Bullhorn Staffing Indicator 

We note the readings for the last 4 weeks are subject to revision and so should be viewed as preliminary, with the reading for the last recorded week the most likely to be revised in next week’s data release. For further information on how the Indicator has been created and detailed technical notes please refer to the methodology.

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