The number of temporary positions available in Spokane is way down and is following a national downturn in the industry, say temporary staffing representatives here.

Nationally, the temp industry has been bleeding jobs for more than a year, losing 76,000 jobs in January alone and more than 600,000 jobs since December of 2007, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In Spokane, the temp industry is doing fine, "except that we're all going broke," says Tom Droz, the owner of the Spokane franchise of Manpower Inc.

Droz says the current downturn has been felt more severely by staffing agencies here than previous recessions were.

"We kind of slid into this one gradually, and it's been way deeper than anything I remember," he says. Droz now traces the downturn to the beginning of 2008, but says it's "hard to tell, because the first quarter is slow in Spokane."

"This year is the first year I haven't had more job orders than qualified employees to fill them," says Jeannie Sanders, a skilled labor recruiter at Spherion Staffing Services Inc., of Spokane. "I've been a recruiter here for three and a half years and I've never had a slowdown, because Spokane is a production city."

With the exception of a couple of big accounts dropping off last March, Spherion really didn't feel a decline until around October, Sanders says.

Megan Shover, a recruiting manager at Provisional Staffing Services, a Spokane company that recruits and places temporary and permanent professional workers, says that company has had a slowdown in line with a 30 percent nationwide drop in temporary agency business since the beginning of 2008.

By summer, when things should have been picking up, they weren't, Droz says.

"It was maybe September when things really started to slide big-time," he says.

Nationally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a more than 19 percent decrease in temporary employment in December, compared with the year-earlier period.

It's surprising that the falloff in business for temp agencies wasn't steeper, says Avista Corp. economist Randy Barcus. He believes agencies might see even more of their business evaporate.

While in the past temporary staffing companies have seen "meteoric" growth at the end of recessions, that pattern has changed, suggesting a long recovery for such agencies here, Droz says.

"The last two slowdowns, that hasn't happened," he says of the upsurge temp agencies once felt at the end of recessions. The near future doesn't look that bright particularly for Spokane, he says, citing Manpower's 2009 employment outlook report, which indicates that Spokane has one of the 10 worst employment projections for this year of that company's markets nationwide.

Labor hit hardest

Sanders says that manufacturers, especially those companies that export their products, have been stressed in the latter part of the year, a sentiment other staffing professionals echo.

"The sector that's the hardest hit is labor," says Dee Kirklin, area manager at Robert Half International Inc.'s Spokane office.

When times got tough, companies dropped their temporary help first, Droz says.

Manpower's business here is 70 percent light industrial and manufacturing, and "that's pretty much gone," he says.

"In the staffing business, we're supplemental. If you're always reading about layoffs, the temps have been laid off ahead of that," Droz says.

That's true at Apex Industries Inc., a Spokane Valley contract job shop that makes parts for a variety of manufacturers, including the electronics, medical, and aerospace industries. Apex often hires short-term labor, but currently has just one temporary employee, says co-owner Gordon Cudney.

"That's where the slowdown hits. You stop using" temporary employees in an effort to have enough work for full-time workers, he says. Though that company is expanding its facility in anticipation of future growth, it recently has had a slow period, and doesn't plan to hire anyone, either permanently or temporarily, in the foreseeable future, Cudney says.

Kirklin says that in general, companies are being more strategic in direct-hire staffing, are making decisions more slowly, and are seeking multiple skill sets in employees.

"They are cautious about bringing on more staff," and opting instead to hire highly skilled temporary workers for a specific project, she says.

The number of hours temps are being offered at work sites is also down, Kirklin says. When companies call to hire temporary help to fill in for vacations or maternity leave, they are more frequently seeking to cover a full-time position with a part-time temp, Kirklin says.

Shover says there are a lot fewer job postings across the board, and a lot more applicants for every position.

"When we post positions, we've seen a notable increase in the number of applications," she says, adding employers tell Provisional that when they advertise available positions now, they receive more resumes than they can handle. She says people looking for work express frustration because they don't hear back from employers, who are so inundated with resumes from job seekers they don't have time to respond to each one.

Droz says one of the side effects of a surplus of workers is that companies can easily recruit workers, so the permanent placement side of temporary help agencies' business suffers, too.

"With unemployment as high as it is, people don't have trouble finding their own people," he says.

Droz says that with such a surplus of workers, Manpower is being more selective about who it hires to fill the few available positions.

"We just don't have the work, so we are selective on the applications we take. Ordinarily, in the temp business, you have some kind of work for anybody, so you aren't real selective," he says.

Not every industry, however, is down. Two areas that recently have had a bump in demand for temporary employees are in refinancing for mortgages and for collections representatives, the temp agencies say.

Spokane Teachers Credit Union, for instance, recently hired three temporary staff members to help it with a high volume of mortgage applications due to low interest rates, and it expects to hire three more, says spokeswoman Keely Barrett.

Sanders says Spherion has had an increase in requests for collections staff, and its customer service and office work positions have remained fairly steady.

Though temporary help agencies tend to have their specialties, they fill in the gaps where they can. Manpower, for instance doesn't typically do a lot of casual labor, but recently provided a lot of labor for snow shoveling, Droz says.

Barometer looks low for a while

When will things begin to turn around? By various accounts, the industry could be looking at six more slow months—or 18 more slow months.

Industry sources indicate that demand could be off until at least the third or fourth quarter this year, Provisional's Shover says.

Droz says it's difficult to guess just where the bottom of the trough will be.

"From where I sit, it feels like we're hitting the bottom," he says, but he hesitates to hazard a guess about when things will get better.

"Every time I think we've got a handle on it, I'm wrong," he says.

One thing Droz says, however, is that the temporary employment industry is a barometer for what's happening with companies. He says there's naturally a tendency for companies to let go of temporary help ahead of regular employees.

"We're a leading indicator," Droz says.

Later, though, those in the industry say they expect to be among the first to see a rise in business.

"As soon as construction takes off again, the effect across the rest of the job categories will be apparent," Spherion's Sanders says.

Staffing agencies themselves are struggling to keep enough work to maintain their own staffs. Droz says Manpower currently is down to six employees when it would normally have 10, though its reductions have been accomplished mainly through attrition.

Provisional has six employees currently, and is "really hoping to tough it out" with its staff intact, Shover says. Yet, to do that, she says, "You've got to have money coming in."