Staffing industry recovers remarkably fast

Temporary workers are the first to be kicked to the curb in reorganizations, it emerged in March. But by the nature of the corona crisis, they also find jobs again quickly.

Many temporary workers who became unemployed at the beginning of the crisis found jobs again in the past three months. Industry association ABU observes that. "The number of hours worked by temporary workers is increasing. We can even cautiously speak of a V-curve," says director Jurriën Koops. According to labor experts temporary workers normally a good measure of the job market, as they are the first to be hired again when the economy improves.

That the staffing industry also shows the latest quarterly figures from Randstad, our country's largest employment agency. "Of the 18,000 temporary workers who became unemployed in the Netherlands because of corona, more than 14,000 are already back at work," said top executive Jacques van den Broek proudly.

According to Van den Broek, this has everything to do with the nature of the corona crisis. Other than during previous crisis, there are now quite a few sectors that are still doing well or even very well. He mentions healthcare, technology, ICT, retail and food. And then there is also the peak in logistics to the end of this year around the holidays. There is work there, and that presents opportunities, the top executive says.

Fast switching

"Fishing where the fish are," he calls it. That the staffing industry is in the midst of a crisis seems to be recovering does surprise labor market experts. Normally, the staffing industry does not recover until there are signs that the entire economy improving. Although Rob Witjes, head of labor market information at benefits agency UWV can still explain it somewhat. "Temporary employment agencies are flexible and can therefore switch quickly to sectors where work is mainly of a temporary nature, which is very useful to them now."

He expects there to be still some work at will come. "Temporary workers can be used to temporarily take over duties of people who need to be quarantined or waiting at home for their coronas test results."

That the staffing industry is recovering so quickly is a break in the trend when you look at the course of a classic economic crisis, such as the credit crunch in 2009 and the euro crisis in 2011, says Ton Wilthagen, professor of labor market. "Back then, developments in the staffing industry a good indicator of developments in the rest of the labor market. If things went well in the staffing industry, the rest of the labor market naturally followed. Now that is different because the crisis was created by acute government intervention in certain sectors," the professor said.

Jobs for the longer term

The recovery of the staffing industry does not immediately mean that the entire labor market will soon be in better shape, says Rob Witjes. "This time it doesn't look like the temp work that is available now is going to lead to jobs for the longer term. These are now mainly temporary jobs, for example, the source and contact investigators - once there is a vaccine - will disappear." Furthermore, Witjes fears that if the corona measures are prolonged or tightened further, more sectors will be in trouble, and that in turn will affect the temporary employment sector.

Wilthagen: "Developments in other countries will also play a role in this. For example, the technical industry is doing well now but if they can no longer import or export parts because other countries are back in lockdown go, that in turn affects employment."

Randstad also remains cautious in its forecasts for next quarter. "The sectors such as hospitality, catering and aviation that were hit during the first wave will continue to be hit," Van den Broek said. He is, however, positive about the chances of helping people who worked around Schiphol, for example, find other work. "I think we can get 70 percent to 80 percent of employees can help."

Source: Wed Oct 21, 2020