Staffing firms have emerged as the largest employment providers in the United States with vast resources at their disposal in the form of temporary, contract and permanent staffing options or types. Staffing firms are also a rich source of providing contract to hire staffing services, as there is more demand for such type of staffing in recent years. The history of contract staffing dates back to the late 1940s when there was a demand for seasonal workers in the form of secretaries and typists but with the passing decades, the parameters of hiring contract hire staffing has vastly changed.
For the year-2014, about 42% of the employers are planning to hire temporary and contract workers for their businesses. This figure is a 2% increase over 2013 and this indicates these numbers would continue to grow steadily. The statistics pertaining to contract staffing services for the year 2013 were impressive with about 31.5 million temporary employees having been employed by U.S. staffing companies. In total about 11 million temporary employees was hired and approximately 79% of staffing employees are working as permanent employees. Small businesses are reaping benefits by hiring the contract employees as they have advantage of when hiring permanent employees.
Staffing agencies or firms provide the companies or employers with the contract staff who are flexible as per the changes in the business environment. Companies are also relieved off from the burden of enhancing business costs in the form of social security benefits, medical facilities, lesser margins due to loss of work because of employee absence or family leaves etc. Temporary staffing is providing small businesses with the work force solution by giving an economic edge during their growth stage in the form of relieving them from hiring the full time employees.
The other benefit for contract workers or employees is that majority of staffing agencies provide in house training for their employees so that these contract employees have advantage over the permanent employees. In addition, the professional contract employees are exposed to new technologies according to the business needs of the organizations. With each new assignment, the horizon of contract/temporary employees duly expands. In totality, the contract staffing offers enormous flexibility for both employers and employees. In the last several decades, contingent-staffing services have expanded in the United States with good results. It has become the niche field for the needs of job seekers as well as organizations.