Three weeks ago, on this show, I told you temp jobs had grown every single month this year. 68,000 of them.
Then the Oct. 2 jobs report revised the summer, and the government took a third of that back.
So Ep. 85 opens with a correction.
It also opens with a contradiction. September was the worst month of the year for temp jobs: down 10,900. Four days later, the SIA | Bullhorn indicator had staffing hours at their high for 2026, with industrial up 15% on last year.
Which is it? Both. There isn't one staffing industry right now. There are two.
What's in it:
→ The correction, in full. July went from +5,200 to −10,000. August, from +6,800 to +200. Net temp jobs added this year: about 35,000 — roughly half of what I cited on Sept. 18.
Lesson for me: I don't hang an argument on one month of that series again.
→ The two tracks. SIA raised its industrial staffing forecast from 1% growth to 7%, then said firms are "generally recording either low single-digit growth or strong double-digit gains," with "little in between." The forecast is seven. Almost nobody is seven.
→ Utah, from the inside. SIA puts about half of planned data-center capacity in four states, and I live in one of them. The University of Utah's Gardner Institute counted 48 data centers running here this spring, with nearly three times their capacity under construction — and projects 2,000 to 3,250 permanent data-center jobs statewide by 2030. In a state with 3.5% unemployment. An address isn't a bench.
→ The constraint flipped. In SIA's latest survey, recruiting difficulty hit a four-year high and pulled even with sales difficulty. One executive: "Business is there; talent is not." And when Aerotek asked job seekers what hurt their search most, 44% said not hearing back. 17% said AI.
→ Where we pointed AI at YES: at the silence. What it does, why a person still makes the decision every time, and what I'd do in a different order if I were starting over.
One format change. I didn't save the "so what do I do" for the end. Every part has a "what I'd do Monday," and the full playbook still closes the show.
The average is lying to you. The question this quarter isn't "is the industry recovering." It's "which industry am I in."
Staffing World is next week in Denver. Take that question with you.
Ep. 85 drops Friday, Oct. 9 at 12:30 PM MDT.
