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ASA Staffing Index

August 5, 2010 | Staffing Blog

ASA Staffing Index

The ASA Staffing Index estimates weekly changes in the number of people employed in temporary and contract work. ASA developed the index to provide a current measure of staffing industry employment trends.

The index helps answer the question, “How’s business?” It allows staffing companies to evaluate their performance against a national metric on both a weekly and long-term basis.

The ASA Staffing Index also serves as a valuable resource for economists, journalists, analysts, researchers, and policy makers who are interested in current trends in staffing employment. Participants account for more than one-third of industry sales offices.

Two numbers are reported weekly. The first is the weekly percentage change in staffing employment. The second is the index itself, which shows staffing employment trends over time. Both numbers are normally posted on the ASA Web site on Tuesday mornings.

Survey Details

  • Data are reported typically nine days after the close of the work week.
  • The methodology mirrors that of the quarterly ASA Staffing Employment and Sales Survey, based on a model developed by Standard and Poor’s DRI in 1992.
  • The baseline value for the ASA Staffing Index was set at 100 in June 2006. Data for the index are gathered by ASA corporate partner Inavero Institute for Service Research, a market research firm based in Portland, OR.
  • Data are obtained through a secure Web-based questionnaire, accessed via a customized invitation e-mail sent to participants every Thursday night.
  • Participants receive a weekly e-mail report on the survey results, which includes performance based on company size in four annual sales categories: less than $7.5 million, $7.5–$25 million, $25–$100 million, and more than $100 million.
  • A monthly summary of the weekly results is available via e-mail to economists, journalists, analysts, researchers, policy makers, and other industry observers