In the October jobs report, one industry that pops out, perhaps because it did the opposite of pop, is temp work. In temporary help services, which is what the Bureau of Labor Statistics calls it, employment went down by 49,000 jobs in October from the month before. It was down by nearly 200,000 jobs in the past year. 

These are people who are employed by staffing agencies to fill in, on a temporary basis, as forklift drivers, office administrators, IT professionals — you name it. 

Let’s travel back in time to spring 2022. The labor market is red hot. People are thinking about quiet quitting. They’re going to see “The Batman” on the sly, and businesses are turning to temps to keep everything going. 

“The temp staffing industry grew to record sizes,” said Timothy Landhuis, VP of research at Staffing Industry Analysts.

Now, he said, the temp industry has come down to earth.

One big reason is demand for workers in warehousing and manufacturing, two big employers of temps, has come down. Also, he said, that new app or website a company might bring a temp IT worker on to complete? Not happening right now.

“Businesses have been sort of bracing for a recession the last couple of years, a recession that hasn’t happened,” Landhuis said. “But because that was anticipated, a lot of projects have been delayed or put on hold.”

Meanwhile, companies are holding tight to permanent workers, and permanent workers are hugging their jobs back.

Jason Leverant is one of the leaders of the AtWork Group, a commercial staffing firm. 

“There’s issues in the past with ghosting where people would start a job but then just disappear, would ghost,” Leverant said. “That has kind of been tempered, I think because of this uncertainty. Like, you know what, I can’t just leave and go get another job.”

Temps fill the gaps left when permanent workers leave. And right now, there are just fewer gaps.