Today's numbers indicate we're continuing to move in a direction of broad-based job growth and we're seeing positive signs for worker demand with increased work weeks. Virtually all sectors are up, and for the year, a total of 573,000 jobs have been added so far. For the temporary sector we're also continuing to see a trend upwards. Since September 2009, 330,000 temporary jobs have been added and this number was no different in April as 26,000 more were created.
The doors to the U.S. economy began to open again this spring. Just a crack, it's true, in most places. But signs that the country's long economic winter may be thawing are there. Even as tens of millions still struggle with unemployment, joblessness has leveled out at about 9.7 percent. It's hardly a number to celebrate, but at least fewer Americans are being shown the door. That's a sign that the American economy is battling back.
As that process continues, another battle may be just beginning. It will be a war for talent. Anyone left out in the cold in this country's long economic winter should be aware that, if unemployment is the classic lagging indicator of a recovering economy, the classic corollary, the flip side, is an eventual, fierce competition for workers. When companies are confident again and need to grow, they tend to hire in significant numbers and they tend to hire fast. That can mean a "Battle Royale," rapidly tilting the balance of power from employer to employee. No, we're not there yet, and we may not be for a while. Workers who prepare now to take advantage of better days will be poised to make the most of the shift. They will have more to offer when the long buyer's market for employers transforms to a seller's market for employees.
Right now, there's no better way to prepare for the change than to walk through the one door to getting hired that already has swung wide: temporary employment. Even in hard-hit areas like advertising and Wall Street/finance jobs, still-cautious employers are taking on part-time and project-based workers. When the economy is stronger, guess who will be the first to be taken on permanently? It's a lot easier to hire someone already working down the hall.
Just as important, companies that hire part-time still frequently need to train. For workers willing to step out of their comfort zone into a new field with growing demand this can mean the potential to develop a whole new skill set. That can compensate for being brought into a business without the security and benefits of the past. It is an opportunity to master new ways to make a living in an economy increasingly driven by new kinds of skilled work. With so many of the jobs of the past already either obsolete or shipped overseas, learning something new may, in the long run, be more important than a lack of traditional benefits in the short run. An ability to do something for which there is a demand, it might be even argued, is in fact the new job security.
It may also be the new normal -- even the new permanent. The reality of the American economy right now, and for the foreseeable future, is that the value of temporary work for both companies and workers makes it likely that this approach will throw down ever deeper roots. Companies significantly increase efficiency and gain productivity with a flexible workforce. And for employees, besides the simple importance of having a job as opposed to not having one, many prefer less rigid hours, along with the chance to "try out" a new career, explore a new industry, widen horizons, not to mention have access to benefits that could include health care, career counseling, bonuses, and a 401(k).
Temporary work is a critical part of the American economy's present. And that's because, as the U.S. emerges from difficult times, it is a key path to building the future -- the brighter future that is coming and just may be here sooner, rather than later. Temporary work today, more than ever before, is likely to lead to permanent rewards tomorrow.