Welcome to this week’s StaffingHub Brief, your strategic intelligence roundup for staffing agency leaders. In this week’s issue:
- Private sector employers added 109,000 jobs in April, the fastest pace since January 2025, while US staffing hours matched year-to-date highs.
- Cross Country Healthcare is going private for $437M, ManpowerGroup sold Jefferson Wells U.S. for $100M, and Kelly’s Q1 revenue fell 10.7%.
- Clients are using temp as a hedge against AI disruption and economic uncertainty, with permanent placement lagging at every major staffing firm.
- Sixty-three percent of job seekers have now faced an AI interview, and 70% were never told AI was evaluating them.
- U.S. workers expect $33,332 more than employers will pay, the largest gap of any country studied.
Staffing hours at a year-to-date high as April hiring hits its fastest pace since January 2025
US staffing hours rose 5% year over year in the week ended April 25, roughly tying their highest levels of the year, per the SIA/Bullhorn Staffing Indicator. Commercial hours climbed 7% year over year and industrial hours surged 10%. Office/clerical was the only weak spot, down 5% year over year, though it edged up marginally week over week. (Learn more)
Private sector employers added 109,000 jobs in April, the fastest pace of job growth since January 2025, according to ADP’s National Employment Report. Health care led the gains and trade, transportation, and utilities rebounded. Professional and business services shed 8,000 jobs. Small employers (under 50 employees) added 65,000 jobs, and medium-sized establishments were nearly flat, adding just 2,000. (Learn more)
Why it matters: Industrial and commercial staffing are carrying the market right now. Professional services softness tells you where client hesitation is.
M&A is moving: Cross Country, Jefferson Wells, and Kelly signal a market in transition
Cross Country Healthcare agreed to be acquired by private equity firm Knox Lane in an all-cash transaction valued at $437 million, taking the healthcare staffing firm private. (Learn more)
ManpowerGroup sold its Jefferson Wells U.S. business to professional services firm Sikich for $100 million, closing on April 30. Jefferson Wells posted $76 million in 2025 revenues. ManpowerGroup will receive approximately $88 million in net cash proceeds and plans to redeploy capital toward its core Manpower, Experis, and Talent Solutions brands. (Learn more)
Kelly Services reported Q1 revenue of $1.04 billion, down 10.7% year over year, but still beat internal guidance of an 11% to 13% decline. Reduced demand from federal government clients and three large enterprise accounts drove the decline. Strip those out and Kelly’s Q1 revenue was down just 3.3%. The company expects mid-single-digit year-over-year growth in Q3 and Q4. (Learn more)
Why it matters: PE is still buying healthcare staffing at scale, large players are trimming non-core units, and the firms still standing are guiding toward a second-half recovery.
Clients are betting on temps, not headcount
Staffing firms across the US and Europe say clients are turning to contractors as they assess how AI will reshape their labor needs, per SIA’s reporting on recent earnings calls from Randstad, Robert Half, PageGroup, and Hays. Global geopolitical and economic uncertainty is adding to hesitancy over permanent commitments. The Federal Reserve’s most recent Beige Book reported increased demand for temporary and contract workers in several districts, as firms held back on permanent hires. (Learn more)
Robert Half reported contract talent revenue down 5% in March year over year, improving from a 7% decline for the full quarter, and down just 1% in early April. Permanent placement revenue fell 6% in March. Robert Half’s CEO noted that large companies evaluating their headcount needs in light of AI are using contractors as a bridge. About 30% of Robert Half’s clients are mid-cap companies; the rest are small and medium-sized businesses. (Learn more)
Why it matters: Clients are using temp as a holding pattern, not a permanent strategy. The agencies that build real account depth during this contractor cycle will convert it when permanent hiring confidence returns.
AI interviewing is mainstream. Transparency isn’t.
Sixty-three percent of job seekers have now faced an AI interview, up 13 percentage points from six months ago, per Greenhouse’s 2026 Candidate AI Interview Report of 2,950 active job seekers. Yet 70% were never clearly told upfront that AI was evaluating them. 38% walked away from a hiring process because it included an AI interview, and only 21% believe most employers are using AI responsibly. Candidates reporting perceived bias from AI interviewers matched rates from human interviewers: 36% flagged age bias from both, 27% flagged race or ethnicity bias from both. (Learn more)
Applications per hire have tripled since 2021, with roles now averaging more than 300 applications each, according to Ashby’s analysis of over 100 million applications and 200,000 jobs. Candidates today are roughly 50% less likely to receive an interview than they were five years ago. Despite the volume surge, hires per recruiter have recovered to about seven per quarter. Time to first fill has stabilized at roughly 8 weeks for business roles and 10 weeks for technical roles. (Learn more)
Why it matters: Candidates are drowning in volume and distrust in AI screening. Staffing firms that lead with transparency and a human-forward process have a genuine competitive advantage over direct hire right now.
The $33K pay gap is a sourcing problem, not simply a candidate perception problem
U.S. workers expect $33,332 more than employers will pay, the largest gap of any country studied, per a JobLeads analysis of over 800,000 job postings and salary expectation data from 245,000 candidates. Globally, candidates expect $10,411 more than employers offer. Researchers found that 99% of all job applicants expect more than the market offers. The widest industry gap is in sales, where professionals expect about $133,000 but receive about $88,000. (Learn more)
60% of job seekers say they won’t apply to a job without a posted salary range, per Monster research cited in the same report. More than half identified missing salary information as the top red flag in a job posting.
Why it matters: Clients without posted salary ranges are bleeding candidates before they ever reach your pipeline, and your fill rate absorbs the cost.
The StaffingHub Brief provides weekly insights for staffing agency leaders and publishes every Friday.
