Staffing shares steady after jobs report

By Scott Malone

BOSTON (Reuters) - U.S. staffing and jobs services companies' shares were little changed on Thursday, after a government report showed employers cut jobs for the sixth straight month, but unemployment held steady.

The Standard & Poor's 1500 Human Resource and Employment Services sub-industry index <.15GSPEMPL> was down 0.19 percent at midday.

The Labor Department said the U.S. economy lost 62,000 jobs last month, bringing the total decline for the year to 438,000.

The subdued reaction on Wall Street -- on a day when U.S. markets will close early for the July Fourth holiday -- reflected the fact that job losses have not hit the level seen in previous recessions, executives said.

"Job losses have remained below the 100,000 mark ... and employment is close to 95 percent for the country -- much better facts and figures than have been seen during past economic recessions and by our global neighbors," said Tig Gilliam, chief executive of the North American operations of Adecco SA , the world's largest staffing company.

Roy Krause, chief executive of Ford Lauderdale, Florida-based temporary staffing company Spherion Corp said his company still has more requests for employees than it has qualified candidates.

The employers Spherion serves are focused on retaining their current work forces, Krause said.

"They are more concerned about quality, they are more concerned about maintaining the existing work force, the right people at a location," Krause said.

The leveling off unemployment reflects that a few years after what some commentators described as a "jobless recovery" from the last U.S. recession, many employers do not have much room to trim staff, executives said.

"We never had a run-up, we never had the full boom, so I don't expect we'll get the full bust either," said Jonas Prising, president of Manpower Inc's North American operations. "(Unemployment of) 5.5 percent is nowhere near as weak as you'd expect in a full-blown recession."

Manpower shares were up 3 cents at $56.03, Robert Half International Inc was down 13 cents at $22.73 and Spherion shares slipped 3 cents to $4.64, all on the New York Stock Exchange.

On Nasdaq, Monster Worldwide Inc shares fell 31 cents, or 1.6 percent, to $18.36, but Hudson Highland Group Inc shares were up 9 cents at $9.75, and Kelly Services Inc rose 4 cents to $19.22.

(Editing by Maureen Bavdek)

(c) Reuters 2008. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.

More US (Business) News click here