With 'in demand' temporary work increasing, Akron-area temp workers share their stories

In early December, Sara Considine walked through the doors of Great Work Employment’s Akron office looking for temporary work.

“Like, right away,” she said, snapping her fingers, “they had a job the next day, and I’ve been there ever since.”

Considine got a job in packaging for an Akron-based sporting goods manufacturer. And she’s made a positive impression there — in February, the company decided to start the process to hire her permanently.

Following COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, the temporary work industry took off nationwide.

Though demand for temp workers and the number of job seekers have fallen since the height of the pandemic, the industry still remains a major employer, with nearly 2% of all non-farm workers nationwide working temp jobs, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And the field is expected to grow in coming years as baby boomers retire and companies need help finding younger workers to replace them.

The market size of the U.S. staffing industry increased from $140.7 billion in 2020 to $188 billion in 2021, then to $224.7 billion in 2022, according to Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA). The firm projects a market size of $201.7 billion in 2023 and $207.2 billion in 2024.

Temp agencies earn revenue from clients who pay to outsource employee base pays and salaries, benefits, insurance and expenses, SIA Chief Analyst Barry Asin shared through email. These agencies also have costs such as salespeople, recruiters and administration, all of which fit into their gross margins, Asin said.

Considine said she used to work as a server and wanted “to see what else was out there.” COVID might have influenced that, she said, “because the serving industry maybe went down a little bit.”

Great Work, a staffing agency with seven offices in Northeast Ohio, employs roughly 500 to 700 temporary workers on any given week, mainly for manufacturing and warehouse distribution roles, President Tia Ramlow said.

Temp worker numbers at local manufacturing sites fluctuate with holidays and around production of seasonal goods, and supply chain disruptions and the United Auto Workers strike lessened some auto industry firms’ need for workers, Ramlow said. But, she said, the pandemic raised the staffing industry’s profile across the board.

“I would say that since the first of the year, we’ve seen a lot more foot traffic, meaning applicants coming through the door,” Ramlow said. “Last year was very tight. We had a lot of the job orders and just not the people to be able to put into them.”

Temporary help services rank among top employees in Ohio

In 2022, about 120,000 people worked in temp jobs in Ohio, according to data provided by SIA. That's 2.2% of Ohio's working population and comparable to the number of cashier roles (122,000) and protective services roles (116,000) in the state, according to 2022 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Within the state's roughly $6.3 billion staffing industry in 2022, health care, information technology and industrial comprised the largest occupational segments, according to SIA.

Ohio's "temporary help services" industry ranked fifth among the state's "detailed industries" in the second quarter of 2023 with nearly 110,000 workers, said a spokesperson from Ohio's Department of Job and Family Services. That accounts for 2.3% of private employment in the state, the spokesperson said.

More jobs available than workers

The number of local jobs for temp workers seems to be increasing, but filling all those open slots is a different story, said Todd Kennedy, CEO of Accurate Staffing.

"We cannot supply enough people to our clients because they can't even find them," said Kennedy, whose agency is headquartered in Akron with another office in Canton and three at client sites.

Candidates sometimes go through all required interviews with the agency and its clients, are scheduled to begin work and then never show up on their first day of the job, he said.

The worker shortage extends beyond the local economy, Kennedy said, adding that he's not sure of the cause.

"I travel quite a bit, and everywhere I go — it's not just Ohio — businesses are shut down because they can't even find people to work," Kennedy said.

Laura Gordos is senior corporate controller at Visual Edge IT, a national company headquartered in North Canton that has multiple other offices in Northeast Ohio and one in Maumee, near Toledo.

About seven years ago, Gordos linked up with Visual Edge IT as a temp worker with staffing agency Robert Half. That wasn't her first time temping.

Now an employee of the IT business, Gordos works with temp workers who come through the agency. About six temps work in accounting at Visual Edge IT per year, she said. Specialized temp roles such as accounts payable, collections and cash applications tend to lead to permanent hiring offers more often than generalized temp roles, like general ledger, that meet seasonal staffing needs, Gordos said.

Gordos said the number of temp work openings in the accounting department has stayed about the same over the past several years. However, she said she noticed there have been fewer qualified candidates to fill the positions since 2022.

"It seems like there are fewer people available since the pandemic," Gordos said.

Nationwide, staffing firm demand lessened somewhat in 2023, said Tom Erb, president of Tallann Resources, a Columbus-based consultancy for staffing agencies across the U.S.

“It was down about 10 to 12% over the previous year, but the previous year was a really good year,” Erb said. “So, that’s a little misleading; 2024 is starting to get busier.”

Addressing the talent shortage, Erb said it's being driven largely by baby boomers retiring and young people having fewer children — a phenomenon known as the “baby bust."

One opportunity to address that shortage, he said, is more flexibility in staffing.

“There's a lot of data out there that’s showing that we're going to have a talent shortage for the next several decades, and it's going to get worse,” said Erb, who also serves on the board of the Ohio Staffing and Search Association. “So, that's going to mean that staffing and recruiting firms are going to be in more demand.”

Benefits of temp work

Dan Campana is part of Gen X, but he’s starting to think about retirement. For about the past three months, he’s been temping with Great Work in the electrical department of an Akron air unit manufacturer.

“If all goes well, this will be my last stop,” said Campana, who previously had another temp job with Great Work at an Akron paint company and has spent much of his career in construction.

As for construction, Campana said, “It was seasonal. I wanted a solid 40 [hours a week]. I wanted the benefits.”

Compared to permanent work, some people prefer temp jobs in fields such as IT, health care and oil and gas, Erb said.

“The benefits have gotten so much better with temporary staffing because in many cases, [temp workers] can get equivalent benefits to if they have a full-time job,” Erb said. “So, in some cases, they can go and work four to six months and make as much as they would working year-round.”

Great Work, for example, offers employees the ability to contribute up to 85% of their earnings into a 401(k) plan, health and dental insurance, holiday pay after completing 720 hours of work and other incentives for referrals, attendance and productivity.

Accurate Staffing also provides its temp workers full medical benefits and paid time off, Kennedy said.

For companies that use temp agencies, outsourcing recruitment can be easier than hiring people directly, Gordos said.

"[Staffing firms] are usually very familiar with their client company," Gordos said. "So, they're better match makers. So, you're not spending a lot of time interviewing and preparing for interviews for jobs that you're not going to be a good fit for."

Staffing company Robert Half's team members are familiar with candidate resumes, which enables them to quickly fill accounting roles at Visual Edge IT, Gordos said.

For people who are out of work, temp jobs may present opportunities for them to advance in their careers, she said.

"Sometimes you read about people who are between jobs, who have a hard time finding a job, and especially for experienced people, this can be a good way to bridge that," Gordos said. "You read a lot of times that there's some discrimination for people who happen to be out of work, whether it's their fault or not. And this can be a good way, I think, to overcome that."

Generally, temp workers are employees of staffing agencies, though some IT and health care professionals temp as independent contractors, Erb said.

Great Work brings on most temp workers as its employees, though some of the agency’s clients need to hire them from the start, Ramlow said.

For Erik Blaydes, beginning a temp job through Great Work last summer has added some variety to his day.

“For this year, this is more of a side job, side opportunity, for me,” Blaydes said. “My main thing is my martial arts business.”

Blaydes said he works his temp job at a sporting goods store in Portage County during the day. He then takes a break for an hour or two and opens Akron Generations Martial Arts.

“Work is work. There’s time to have fun. There is a time to be serious,” he said. “But I would say I still want to be having some type of enjoyment with either the job and/or the people that I interact with.”

And he said that has been the case in his temp job.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Why temp agencies are among the biggest employers in Ohio, Akron