US contingent workforce employment was down 8.5%, according to the February 2024 Contingent Workforce Data Analysis by Magnit, a provider VMS, MSP and other services. Pay fell as well. US average hourly pay for the contingent workforce fell by 2.2%.

Magnit’s report compared the three months from December 2023 to February 2024 to the three months from September 2023 to November 2023.

Some segments did better than others. Financial services saw hiring volume rise by 32% even as hiring volume in technology fell 14.1%. Similarly, pay was down 9.5% in manufacturing but up 25.6% in the consumer products and services segment.

Separately, Magnit’s report found that women are influencing job growth and accounted for 61% of fills in 2023 and 67% in the initial months of this year.

“We’re seeing a surge of women impacting new hires in the labor market,” Dustin Burgess, senior VP of strategic advisory at Magnit, said in a press release.

“The uptick we’ve witnessed in the past couple years may be attributed to women reentering the workforce after assuming primary caregiver roles during the pandemic,” Burgess said. “In the current tight labor market, employers that embrace flexibility and benefits catered to all genders are poised to leverage this trend for sustained growth.”

Here are changes in US contingent workforce employment data by industry during the timeframe covered by the report.

• Technology
  • Hiring volume: -14.1%
  • Layoffs: -57.1%
  • Voluntary terminations: -58%
• Financial services
  • Hiring volume: +32%
  • Layoffs: -76.7%
  • Voluntary terminations: -65.5%
• Healthcare
  • Hiring volume: -13.3%
  • Layoffs: -54.8%
  • Voluntary terminations: -46.4%
• Consumer products and services
  • Hiring volume: -39.7%
  • Layoffs: -75.8%
  • Voluntary terminations: -73%
• Manufacturing
  • Hiring volume: +23.6%
  • Layoffs: -61%
  • Voluntary terminations: -31.8%
• Life sciences
  • Hiring volume: +15.5%
  • Layoffs: -15.4%
  • Voluntary terminations: -40.8%

Here are changes in US contingent workforce annual pay data by category during the timeframe covered by the report.

• Technology: +16.9%
• Financial services: +10.6%
• Healthcare: -6.3%
• Consumer products and services: +25.6%
• Manufacturing: -9.5%
• Life sciences: +4.4%

Magnit uses data from a variety of external and internal sources, and the data is aggregated, cleansed and anonymized.