As we shared in the March 2024 Pulse Report, IT staffing trends were more or less sideways in February compared to the previous report. Median IT staffing revenue was flat (0%) year over year, while aggregate IT staffing revenue was down 7%, indicating relative weakness among larger staffing firms.

The net percent of IT staffing firms reporting positive year-over-year revenue was also essentially flat (-2%), and bill rate growth has flattened with only a net 4% of IT staffing respondents seeing an increasing trend in bill rates growth in the last three months.

Pulse trends are representative of broader flatness in trends and show that lackluster growth from 2023 has carried over to the beginning of 2024. We took that into account in the March 2024 Forecast.

With more data on 2023 received, we revised our estimate for 2023 IT staffing revenue to -10%. And with continued caution to start 2024, we project a single-digit decline (-3%) in 2024. However, optimism is growing, and a number of companies are pointing to an uptick in orders. We expect rising second-half demand to carry over into 2025, where we project 5% growth.

Kforce Inc. (NASDAQ: KFRC) in its fourth-quarter 2023 earnings call projected a 10% to 12% decline in its technology flex segment in the first quarter of this year. Theirs and other large company quarterly earnings soon to be released will give more insight on when we can start to see more than patchy growth in the IT staffing industry.

The next Pulse will be in May — look out for the invite at the beginning of the month or visit our surveys page.