Are buyers in the finance/insurance sector hiring again?

Roughly a third of all staffing companies say the finance/insurance sector is one of their most important customers.  So when last year's banking meltdown occurred, a lot of staffing firms were hit hard.  According to our latest Staffing Industry Monthly Pulse Survey, however, a few "green shoots" may be appearing... 
Our sample size for finance/insurance was not large--just twelve staffing firms reported generating a majority of their revenue from the industry--but it's nonetheless impressive that these twelve markedly outperformed on a wide variety of measures.  In particular:

  • Staffing firms who derived a majority of their revenue from finance/insurance experienced a y/y weighted-average decline in revenue of just 10%, as compared to a 24% y/y decline for staffing firms as a whole.
  • Forty-five percent of these firms reported that sales improved from April to May; by contrast, only 11% of staffing firms generally reported improvement.
  • Twenty-seven percent of these firms reported y/y growth; this compares with 18% of staffing firms generally.
  • One hundred percent of these firms said if they had to either acquire another firm or sell their own, they would be more inclined to acquire; staffing firms taken as a whole were less bullish on their business, with 78% preferring to acquire.

Subsidies to the beleaguered banking industry may at last be playing out... Interested in participating in the next Staffing Industry Monthly Pulse Survey?  Click here.  All participants receive a free analysis of trend information on a segment-by-segment basis.