Demand for Temps To Reach New Heights in 2013

Staffing Industry Analysts says the temp market will exceed its historical high next year, as employers continue to bring on contract workers.

The annual survey and forecast predicts temp hires across all industries will reach 106 percent of their historical high during 2013. Some sectors will far exceed the average. In healthcare, locum tenens physicians (temporary doctors brought it at short-staffed facilities or as fill-ins) will be at 128 percent of their historical high, which was reached in 2008.

IT and engineering/design professionals will also be well above the average, with the former hitting 116 percent and the latter at 111 percent. Demand for these skilled workers continues to climb, creating, as the Staffing Industry Analyst report notes:

Demand for temporary talent in these (and other) occupational skill sets are at historic high levels. If the supply of workers willing to accept these temporary roles is not readily available, pay rates will rise and time-to-fill will lengthen as buyers compete for scarce resources.

Some sectors, however, will be below their historical numbers. In particular, the office/clerical, and per diem and travel nurse sectors will grow far less rapidly than temp staffing as a whole. Both nursing groups are now, and next year will continue to be at levels less than 80 percent of their peaks in 2008.