A temporary lag

Business is picking up at some temporary-employment agencies here, a sign that the region's economy also may be gaining strength.

The resurgence comes after temp agencies' business fell off sharply earlier when the economy cooled.

"When business goes south for anybody, it impacts the contingent

It makes sense, says Tom Droz, franchise owner of Manpower Temporary Services here: In a downturn, companies will stop using temporary help before taking the more drastic step of laying off their own employees. When they start to get busy again, "They'll bring in a whole stack of folks on a temporary basis to get them ramped back up," he says.

The state of Washington, in a report published in 1997, confirms the status of the temporary-help industry as a leading economic indicator. "This is not a new revelation," the report says, "since firms tend to let go of temporary workers first as the economy weakens and hire temporary workers first as they cautiously test a strengthening economy."

Both Droz and Prafke say volume at their businesses has increased in just the past month or so, Prafke says Humanix's revenues are up about 20 percent in that period compared with what they were earlier this year. Droz didn't have a ready figure on how much the local Manpower operation's business was up, but says, "We're recovering, in fact almost faster than we can recover. You can get phenomenal growth in our business coming out of recessions."

What's more, many of the temporary positions here are being created in manufacturing, assembly, and industrial businesses, agency owners and managers say - a potentially encouraging sign given the beating those sectors have taken in the past year.

"We're finding that we're doing more manufacturing," Droz says. "I was concerned toward the end of last year whether (that type of business) was going to come back at all. It's really good to have that business back."

Barrett Business Services Inc.'s Spokane office, which specializes in placing industrial and manufacturing workers, has "definitely seen an upswing in business recently," says Eric Agnew, office manager here. The increase has been especially notable in manufacturing and assembly jobs, he says. "Companies are starting to get more of a workload; they've really been getting a lot of orders and production assignments in," he says.

The slowdown in the temporary-employment business began long before the events of Sept. 11, industry executives say.

Erick Fahsholtz, staffing manager at Provisional Staffing Services here, says parts of his business - particularly his accounting- and industrial-employment services - began to slow as early as the fall of 2000 and never picked up again last spring, as he thought they might.

Droz also reports a slow 2001, and, in fact, says he had begun to see signs of a recovery in his business just before Sept. 11. Following the terrorist attacks, however, "We had a pretty long winter," he says, adding, "I think everybody in town did."

Some sectors of the temporary-help industry haven't seen any downturn in business - particularly those that serve industries such as health care, which has remained strong.

Fahsholtz says his business units that serve the call center and medical industries both did well last year.

Lisa Ditmar, chief operating officer of TechGroup Inc. here, which specializes in filling medical jobs, says the company has grown in the past two years.

"There's such a dire need for professional medical people," she says. "That just didn't slow down."