Temporary employment agencies remain optimistic for the first half of 2012 as they expect the number of temporary staff to increase. The association of temporary employment agencies in Germany (BAP) has published its latest index on temporary staffing and found that 60% of surveyed agencies expect the employment level for temporary workers to increase in the coming months.

Although this sounds good, the figure is down -26% from the same quarter last year, indicating that last year’s euphoria around temporary staffing has calmed down. However, only 3% expect employment levels in the industry to go down, which shows a slight improvement of +2% from last year.

In December 2011 the contract volume declined from the previous month in all sectors as only 5% of those surveyed reported an increase. The number of firms unsatisfied with the current contract volume has gone up to 60% from previously 38%. However the market showed improvements since the number of applicants has increased in all sectors, most notably in the technical industry (45.5%) and the metal and electro industry (41.7%).

Year on year, the number of temporary workers has gone up to an average of 10.7% while in December the figure went down on average by -3.7%, something which is mainly attributed to seasonal changes.

Hours billed have also gone down by -17.4% in December. Particularly large firms, employing 500+ staff, have reported a decrease of -17.9% while smaller companies fared better in the month reporting a slight growth of +1.7%.

The survey was carried out by the Cologne Institute for Economic Research on behalf of BAP and questioned over 2,200 BAP member agencies on employment trends in the temporary staffing industry in Germany.