Central Mass. Staffing Firms See Continued Hiring Rebound
Jamal Mahijibhai’s small staffing agency recently doubled the size of its staff, and business volume has increased for the third year in a row, a sign that hiring has picked up for the Central Massachusetts medical sector.
His agency, Worcester-based Medical Staffing Group Inc., noted year-over-year upticks in direct hires, and specialized positions such as hospice managers and bilingual nurses are in demand.
“This year we are seeing more need,” Mahijibhai said. “We’re getting the calls.”
His company is not alone, according to the most recent edition of the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book, which comes out every six weeks.
The September edition notes that New England staffing agencies saw growing demand for both permanent and temporary-to-permanent hires, as well as employment gains in the staffing industry during 2010.
The staffing industry lost 1.1 million jobs, or 37 percent of its workforce, during the recession. But it gained back 401,000 jobs during 2010 and area firms report continued growth this year.
“It’s normal that the staffing industry shows growth when we are emerging from a recession,” said Steve Bercham, vice president of the American Staffing Association.
But employers are still skittish, said Corey Adams, who manages two MetroWest Robert Half International offices.
In-demand positions are more likely to be hired outright, recruiters say, but companies generally prefer “temporary-to-hire” arrangements, in which they will permanently hire a temporary worker if they’re a good fit.
The Skills Gap
Hires that are heavily sought after by employers mostly involve specialized skill sets and experience. They include engineers, machinists, manufacturing technicians, various medical staff and information technology specialists.
Ryan Clutterbuck, general manager of the Davis Cos., a Marlborough-based recruiter, said it’s more difficult to fill those positions.
“A year ago, I’d say that the expectations were high from companies because there were a lot of candidates out there,” Clutterbuck said. “Now there are less candidates so they need to be able to be flexible in a variety of different areas.”
Some of those areas include allowing flexible hours or allowing employees to do some of their work from home, he said.
A recent Robert Half survey found that 59 percent of employers had trouble recruiting, up 17 points from the quarter before.
Adams, of Robert Half, said some employers might be guilty of being too picky.
“Most companies are looking for multiple skill sets or highly specialized expertise levels,” he said. “In some cases, hiring managers are being too selective or unrealistic.”
As often seems to be the case with economic news, the strong rebound staffing agencies have seen over the last 18 months was soon tempered.
A Sept. 13 survey of 18,000 employers from global recruiting firm ManpowerGroup found that employers’ hiring plans will be guarded for the remainder of 2011. It was the first decrease in outlook among employers after nine consecutive quarters of positive outlook.
In the Northeastern United States, a net 4 percent of employers expected to increase staff levels, the survey found.
“We’ve definitely seen a softening compared with a year ago or even earlier this year,” said Bercham of American Staffing. “At the same time I say that, the staffing firms I’m talking to say that they are not concerned that this is a double-dip recession.”
Bercham noted that the predicted slowdown comes in the wake of minuscule GDP growth. Retail sales were also flat in August and employees were working fewer hours. The numbers of involuntary part-time workers, who cannot find full-time work because of economic reasons, reached 8.8 million in August, its highest point since January, according to Census Bureau data.
Jo-Ann Gladstone, manager at Select Staffing Solutions in Worcester and Framingham, said her firm began to see a downward shift in August.
Like Adams, Gladstone also thinks companies are expecting especially strong candidates right now. “They are looking for someone who can take on a lot more,” she said.
Despite short-term predictions, area firms are positioning for steady growth.
Davis Cos. created a direct-hire division in March that’s now staffed by six people, to find matches for the hard-to-fill positions.
“That group has to really go and dig a little bit deeper into the company and the databases to find that perfect match a company is looking for,” Clutterbuck said.
Luring Out Candidates
Not all firms are using staffing agencies.
Boxborough-based Crossbeam Systems Inc., a network security firm, was recently touting its plans to hire 20 or more engineers, support and marketing staff. They’re the types of positions for which companies compete.
Crossbeam has agreements with several staffing agencies, but the company decided to host an old-fashioned job fair, complete with food and drinks for job seekers, said Chet Gapinski, the company’s vice president of marketing and product development.
He said the company wants to reach both those who are looking for work as well as those who have jobs but may be unhappy in them, with a more personal touch.
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