The Swedish staffing industry proves to be more resilient than some of its European counterparts as staffing services continued to be in high demand in the second quarter of the year, new statistics show.

In the three months to June, recruitment agencies saw a small +1% increase in revenue when compared to a year ago. The rise may be marginal but in other countries in Europe, including the Netherlands, staffing services have seen a continuous decline this year.

The association of Swedish staffing agencies reports mixed results with revenue derived from outplacement services showing the strongest rise of +108%.

“The increase [in outplacement services] indicates that client companies are reducing the number of their own staff to a greater extent,” said Henrik Bäckström, director general of the staffing association.

Outsourcing services were also much in demand with revenue in this service area rising by +13% year-on-year. However, recruitment services showed signs of deterioration as revenues dropped by -13% in the second quarter of the year.

“The staffing industry is into the second wave of development in the current business cycle. In the first wave (2010‐11) industrial jobs increased substantially when industry started production following the financial crisis,” said Mr Bäckström.

“Now it’s white‐collar jobs within IT and technology that are displaying stronger sales figures, particularly within industry in West and Central Sweden. Industrial jobs are increasing sharply in Stockholm (+44%) and warehouse jobs in Central Sweden (+15%). Nationally, there is strong development in the health and medical care sector (+34%).”

Central Sweden was the region seeing the sharpest rise in revenue (+6%), followed by Northern Sweden (+5%) and Stockholm (+4%). In Southern Sweden staffing industry revenue dropped by -8%, compared to a -3% fall seen in the Western part of the country.