US staffing revenue fell by a median 6% year over year in June among staffing companies taking part in SIA’s latest Pulse survey. Results were released Thursday. However, small companies appeared to have less of a decline than large firms in the survey — small staffing firms saw a median revenue decline of 5% compared to 15% at large firms.

“It is unusual to see small/midsize staffing firms performing better than larger firms in a relatively weak market, yet it has shown up as a trend in this year’s Pulse Surveys,” said Curtis Starkey, senior research analyst at SIA. “The phenomenon could in some ways be attributed to larger staffing firms facing a higher impact from large-scale layoffs, and it is also possible that smaller firms participating in the Pulse Survey recently are skewing upward in revenue compared to average smaller staffing firms.”

Looking at revenue growth by segment, the fastest increase was in locum tenens staffing where revenue rose a median 11% year over year in June. It was followed by allied healthcare, which rose a median 4%. On the flip side, travel nursing revenue fell by a median 21% year over year, and per diem nursing fell 14% year over year.

IT staffing revenue rose by only a median 1%, while office/clerical and industrial staffing revenue fell by a median 1% and 5%, respectively.

The latest Pulse report survey also asked firms what they are doing in terms of training temporary workers. The most common response was third-party educational content, with 34% of firms saying they currently provide such access and 20% planning to explore that within the next two years. Only 25% were not planning to implement that, and 11% were not aware of the option.

The US Staffing Industry Pulse Survey Report is based on data submitted by 171 staffing companies. It is available to SIA corporate members; the full Pulse report is available only to companies that took part in the survey. For more information on participating in the next survey, contact cstarkey@staffingindustry.com.