Temporary Help Employment
Temporary-help employment counts payroll workers supplied by staffing firms. Employers can add or release contingent workers faster than permanent staff, so this small industry often changes direction before total nonfarm payrolls.
Year-over-year change
Next release: Nov 6, 2026
Latest reading
As of September 2026, Temporary Help (Year-over-year change) stands at 0.6% — up from 0.6% the prior reading, 43.8 pp below the April 2021 record of 44.4%. Persistent year-over-year contraction is a warning that businesses are reducing flexible labor demand; stabilization or renewed growth can be an early recovery sign. Structural changes in staffing and post-pandemic normalization mean it should confirm broader hours, hiring and payroll evidence rather than stand alone. Series history runs from 1990 to present.
Sources, methodology & freshnessBLS Current Employment Statistics via FRED (TEMPHELPS), monthly, seasonally adjusted · Monthly, with every releaseData as of 2026-09-01 · Open ↓Close ↑
Full history
Methodology & data
Temporary Help is sourced from BLS via the Federal Reserve's FRED service (BLS Current Employment Statistics via FRED (TEMPHELPS), monthly, seasonally adjusted). We pull the complete history, chart it on a monthly basis, overlay SPY for context, and generate a dated plain-English reading from the latest release — with no smoothing or adjustment beyond what the chart legend states.
Every reading is stamped with its release date. Latest observation 2026-09-01; site refreshed 2026-10-08. Maintained and reviewed by Yuriy Matso; see our methodology for the standards every series on the site is held to.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Temporary Help Employment?
Temporary-help employment counts payroll workers supplied by staffing firms. Employers can add or release contingent workers faster than permanent staff, so this small industry often changes direction before total nonfarm payrolls.
How do you read Temporary Help?
Persistent year-over-year contraction is a warning that businesses are reducing flexible labor demand; stabilization or renewed growth can be an early recovery sign. Structural changes in staffing and post-pandemic normalization mean it should confirm broader hours, hiring and payroll evidence rather than stand alone.
Where does the Temporary Help data come from?
BLS Current Employment Statistics via FRED (TEMPHELPS), monthly, seasonally adjusted. We chart the full history and publish a dated, plain-English reading with every release; the raw series is downloadable as CSV at /data/indicators/temporary-help-employment.csv.
How often is Temporary Help updated?
Temporary Help is a monthly series from BLS, refreshed here as soon as a new release posts to FRED.
Year-over-year change
Next release: Nov 6, 2026