General Investing
Low-Growth Environment Translates to High Growth for Temp Staffing
July 12, 2010While permanent hiring remains sluggish and recent Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers leave many disappointed, the temporary staffing sector offers investors a solid growth story amidst the uncertainties of economic recovery.
“Temporary help disproportionately benefits from a low-growth environment. Temporary help returned to healthy sequential growth in October and has shown solid sequential growth every single month through May,” said J.P. Morgan Managing Director Andrew Steinerman. “When you take all this into account, temporary help has reached a year-over-year growth of 16% in May. Also June temporary help seems to be showing further growth.”
Steinerman views niche and global staffing players as those best equipped to compete in this high-demand environment.
“Robert Half (RHI), which is the ‘King Kong’ of accounting staffing, from low-end accounting staffing to high-end accounting services, is in an enviable place to be,” said Steinerman, who also likes global staffing firms Manpower (MAN) and Adecco (ADEN). “We definitely see the value of niche players, especially when they are addressing a large niche. Robert Half has a tremendous dominance in accounting staffing, far surpassing the second and third players in terms of size and recognition from both the candidate as well as the end user.”
