The State of the Contingent Workforce
For the past two days I’ve been at the Staffing Industry Analysts annual Executive Forum in Miami Beach, Florida. This years Executive Forum attendance was down but still drew more than 500 executives despite the recession that’s hitting the human capital industry particularly hard. The recession and legislation affecting the staffing industry ranked among the top topics discussed Tuesday.
While traditional staffing and management consulting are certainly not identical human capital solutions, they are at opposite ends of the same flexible workforce continuum. So, for me, this event always provides interesting insights into the future of the whole contingent workforce.
Total staffing industry revenue is expected to decline 12.5% in 2009, according to Barry Asin, chief analyst and managing executive of products at Staffing Industry Analysts, in his keynote on Tuesday. “In the short term I don’t have lots of really good news for you,” Asin said. “I do have optimism for the longer term.” Most economists and the general consensus amongst staffing executives was that the recession would be over by late 2009, provided there were no “other surprises.”
One statistic which surprised me was the unemployment rate for college graduates. It stands at 3.3% compared to the high-school level which is over 11%. Clearly the demand for knowledge workers still exists, even in this depressed market. As we enter the recovery and leading-edge Baby Boomers gain enough confidence to retire this statistic will likely become even more startling.
Many executives I’ve been speaking with are optimistic that when the economy recovers more of their clients will be inclined to use the flexible workforce as a core component of their overall workforce strategy. This trend is one that M Squared Consulting has been advocating for some time. As the workforce evolves and the nature of work changes to become more project-based, it is only natural that the workplace will adapt to accomodate the growing contingent workforce.
In another session on staffing and the law, George Reardon, VP and general counsel of Adecco Group North America, said not a lot of legislation has specifically targeted staffing firms in the past, but that may change with the election of President Obama. It’s “hard to imagine an anti-employer, anti-staffing bill he would refuse to sign,” Reardon said.
