Five top executives from some of the largest staffing firms weighed in on the economy during an executive panel at SIA’s Executive Forum North America on March 26. SIA Chief Analyst Barry Asin also asked about the outlooks in their businesses and why they believe growth in staffing remains subdued even as it continues in the broader economy. 

Here’s what they said: 

Taryn Owen, president and CEO, TrueBlue Inc. 

“If you go look at GDP and you really peel back the layers, the growth is being fueled from consumer spend and government investment and spend. When we typically see growth overall in the staffing industry, it’s when businesses are spending broadly, and we’re not seeing that. It’s not what we’re hearing from our customers in terms of what they’re experiencing. And so, when we look at the outlook for our industry, I think there’s a lot of dependency on interest rates and what happens there that can ultimately fuel business growth broadly.” 

Janette Marx, CEO, Airswift 

“We’re in a little bit of a different position because a lot of our focus has been in the energy industry. When all of you guys were celebrating great years, we were in downcycles. So we got to experience the opposite last year, where we had our best year ever and came into this year still feeling quite strong. So from a perspective of engineering, the shortage of talent, the technical people that we staff, it’s strong.” 

Leslie Snavely, president, CHG Healthcare 

“Particularly travel nursing, which is the biggest part of healthcare, [experienced] five to six times the market size over about an 18-month span. So we lived that, and that was fun. [We’ve] been experiencing the biggest reset that our industry has ever experienced, specifically within travel [nursing]. We are mostly a physician staffing company, as you mentioned, but we do have a big business in travel [nursing], and so where I feel today is stable — which feels pretty good given the ride down that we’ve been experiencing. … For the rest of our business, I feel really optimistic.” 

Mike Small, president, Akkodis North America and US country president, The Adecco Group 

“If I take a macro look [at] light industrial, professional, we’re seeing some softening. But that said, IT, which was in a significant decline last year in terms of our tech staffing business, we’re seeing it flatline, we’re seeing it stabilize, which is good news. 

“That said, the industries, it’s a different picture. BFSI is very different right now than, say, our defense businesses. Our defense businesses are up; you know why. The bad news about some of the political uncertainty is that a lot of our countries around the world are spending a lot more on defense. So we’re seeing lift in our defense businesses our government businesses. … If I look at some of the countries in Europe that have a different contractor model than here in the States, we’re seeing strength in some of our European countries. 

“But specific to North America, Canada has been pretty good, especially in our light industrial businesses as well as our government businesses. In North America, our professional and IT staffing are somewhat stabilizing now, which is great. [If] we’re looking at the silver lining for us, when clients come to us and ask for more value in terms of SOWs or projects or some consulting solutions, that’s where we’re seeing our growth.” 

Steve Schumacher, president, Allegis Global Solutions 

“I will contrast it with how I was feeling at this time last year. I was coming to this event, and I traveled here with a knot in my stomach. We could already begin to see the spend declines, and I was looking for some soft shoulders to cry on when I got here. But this room was way more optimistic than I was. And I was like, ‘Golly, is it me, is it the space in which we serve?’ I think, probably, looking back, we all wanted to be together, and that created optimism and excitement. I think we were all coming off of high highs, and there was hope those highs were real. I don’t think they were.  

“But I contrast that with last night. I was at a reception, and it was heavier, it was a bit darker, there wasn’t much enthusiasm about growth this year. And I come in feeling much more optimistic. We’ve seen growth for the last six months, our year over years are up right now. We’re seeing new clients. ... I think Q1 is going to be pretty good.” 

The panelists also discussed other issues, including recent examples of legislation that have targeted the staffing industry. 

“Our industry is under attack,” Marx said, adding the legislators don’t seem to understand it.  

“We just have to tell our story a lot more aggressively,” Small said. He added that outsourcing does much of the same thing as staffing, but the outsourcing industry is not experiencing the same legislative issue. 

“This is a real crisis,” Snavely said. 

The Executive Forum North America continues through Thursday in Las Vegas.