In our September IT staffing newsletter, we talked about the second half trending sideways in IT staffing, and sideways is exactly what we saw in the latest Pulse survey report.

Per the report, median August revenue was flat (0%) year over year, and the same was true for aggregate revenue.

A net 3% of IT staffing firms observed an increasing trend in bill rates over the last three months, while a net 8% saw an increasing trend in new orders.

Sales difficulty for IT staffing positions was 3.64 (on a scale of 1-5); recruiting difficulty was 2.76.

We have tracked these two values since December of 2013, and we use the difference (recruiting minus sales difficulty) to measure how tight the labor market is. A higher value indicates a tight labor market, whereas a low or negative value shows a looser labor market.

That difference is shown below.

The difference has historically ranged from -1.5 to 1.5, though until the outset of Covid-19, it had mostly been positive in a relatively small range.

The early 2020 shock is seen in the sudden drop in the value, followed by a quick tightening, evidenced by a sharp increase in the value in 2021 and 2022.

But since that time, the recruiting difficulty minus sales difficulty value has come down sharply, and has been negative in each Pulse since October 2022. However, in recent months the value has been showing signs of plateauing, and an eventual return upward is expected.

Our next US Pulse Survey will take place in November (click here to participate when it opens). IT staffing firms are eager to see when things will move beyond the sideways stage and into the growth stage.