Diverging jobs pictures: Staffing industry up, health departments down

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The recession wreaked havoc on employment numbers; now the slow climb to better times is affecting jobs in unexpected ways.

The 2.09 million temporary and contract workers employed by staffing companies in the fourth quarter of 2009 represented a 2.2% increase from the third quarter. The growth was the second swell after six quarters of declines.

Revenue for staffing companies jumped 8.5% to $14.5 billion for the fourth quarter from the third, the American Staffing Assn. said Monday.

But compared with the same period a year earlier, staffing employment fell 15.2% in the fourth quarter and sales were down 13.7%. Across all of 2009, average daily employment in the industry slid 24.6% from 2008 and total sales of $54 billion were down 24.3%.

The situation looks even more dire in local health departments, which shed 16,000 jobs in 2009, according to the National Assn. of County and City Health Officials on Monday.

Compared with the 7,000 jobs lost in 2008 to budget cuts, layoffs, eliminated positions and attrition, the drop is significant. In the last two years, the group said, 15% of the local public health work force has vanished.

-- Tiffany Hsu