This year will be a difficult one for staffing agencies with revenues set to go down by some 3% because of the economic problems and weak labour market, according to a new report by economists from ABN Amro bank.

All branches will be affected but the industrial sector will be hardest hit, the economists say. Last year, staffing agencies saw revenues rise by 8%.
Unemployment is set to reach 6.5% this year and few new jobs will become available, further hindering staffing agency growth, the report states.
Cost cutting
USG People, one of the Netherlands’ biggest providers of temporary labour, said on Friday it had been forced to introduce cost cutting measures in the final quarter of last year after posting a loss of €37m.
The number of branches is being reduced by 66 and 315 jobs have been scrapped. USG, which owns the Start and Unique brands, booked a loss of €40m over 2011 as a whole, on turnover up 5% at €3.3bn.