CT firm’s job placement numbers go up in January
“There’s jobs out there. … You’ve just got to raise your hand and take a look.”
Paul Sirbono, vice president of Excel Partners
Gary Gilbert admits he was as surprised as anyone, after seeing a significant jump this month in companies hiring people who were placed in those jobs by his Excel Partners staffing firm.
If it is still anyone’s guess whether that represents a vote of confidence by employers for the Connecticut economy this year, Excel Partners is casting its vote in the affirmative in acquiring fellow Norwalk firm Mackey Staffing.
The combined company has nearly 20 employees and thousands of business clients in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey. Between 10 percent and 15 percent of the client lists of the two companies overlap, according to Gilbert, president of Excel Partners.
The U.S. recruitment and staffing industry generated revenue of $219 billion in 2022, according to estimates by Staffing Industry Analysts, in line with the prior year and well above the revenue totals for 2020 and 2021.
“When the pandemic hit, we got crushed — everyone started this work-from-home or hybrid working model and a lot of the companies were skeptical about hiring at the time because everything was very shaky,” Gilbert said. “The market has started coming back over the last three years, and I’d say at the beginning of last year we hit some good numbers.”
A number of publicly traded staffing companies that reported declining revenue in the back half of 2023 saw placement numbers rebound again this month, Gilbert added, running 50 percent above January 2023 with still a few days to go in the month.
Staffing companies can be a bellwether for the larger economy in multiple ways. As orders come in ahead of expectations, companies will often turn to temporary workers to perform that work ahead of making permanent hires, often with the assistance of those same external staffing firms. But companies can also turn to temps during hiring freezes that are driven by dour outlooks, with staffing companies also a relief valve when human resources departments are pared during downturns.
About 64 percent of people who work for staffing agencies do so to fill a gap in earnings after losing a previous job and help them land a new one, according to studies by the American Staffing Association. But one of every five choose to work for staffing companies for the flexibility in scheduling their work hours. Employers foot the cost of placement fees to staffing agencies.
Of nearly 160 larger firms nationally categorized by Staffing Industry Analysts, two-thirds had their primary focus in information technology and nursing.
The typical client uses two or three staffing firms, Gilbert said, but larger corporations might use two or three for each job function, and so maintaining a larger pool of staffing firms they reach out to for assistance in filling jobs.
The American Staffing Association lists 50 members in Connecticut, but the actual number is far higher. The Connecticut Department of Public Health lists more than 250 active licenses for temporary nursing staff agencies alone. In Massachusetts, about 1,300 staffing agencies have registered with state regulators under a law requiring them to do so there regardless of their industry focus.
Several of the largest companies in the business have Connecticut offices, including Adecco Staffing, Allegis Global Solutions, Manpower Group and Robert Half International.
As of December, there were 75,000 open jobs in Connecticut according to Conference Board’s monthly scan of job boards and other websites, released publicly by the Connecticut Department of Labor. DOL estimated that Connecticut lost 2,500 jobs in December, showing the gap between what many companies are seeking, and the qualifications of those actively seeking work.
“There’s jobs out there,” said Paul Sirbono, vice president of Excel Partners. “You’ve just got to raise your hand and take a look.”