Revenue growth for Orange County’s employment agencies slowed down last year, according to this week’s Business Journal list of the 22 largest firms here.
The companies collectively notched $813.2 million in revenue, up about 1% from 2011. Last year was the third-straight year of revenue gains for OC’s staffing firms since a 20% decline in 2009.
Revenues picked up by 12% in 2010, followed by a 7% increase in 2011.
About half of the firms on this week’s list are headquartered in OC, while the others have sizable operations here.
Nine of the local offices posted gains in revenue, and two reported declines. Totals for the rest were based on Business Journal estimates.
Market Indicator
Staffing firms are considered a key indicator of the job market’s health, as many companies turn to their services for temporary workers before making permanent hires.
The slower rate of growth for the listed companies reflects a strong market for permanent hires in OC over the past year or so, a period that has seen the jobless rate fall from 7.9% to 6.3%.
Half of the entries on this week’s list provided information on worker placement over the 12-month period through March. Among them, the number of placed temporary workers increased by 11% to 288,229.
The staffing firms themselves also saw gains in employment here. The companies combined for 950 employees overall as of last month, a 4% growth year-over-year.
Select Staffing took the No. 1 spot on this week’s list, up three from last year. The Santa Barbara-based firm has seven OC offices, which accounted for $101.3 million in revenue last year, a gain of 3% year-over-year. Companywide revenue was roughly $1.9 billion.
Select Staffing has 54 employees here after hiring two over the past year.
Its OC offices combined to place 13,299 temporary workers over the 12-month span through March, a 5% decrease from the year prior.
Aerotek Inc. was No. 2, with an estimated $90.8 million in 2012 revenue. The Hanover, Md.-based company has 62 employees in its Santa Ana office, a 13% decrease from a year ago. It also saw a 23% drop in the number of temporary workers placed over the year, to 4,215.
Switzerland-based Adecco Employment Services Inc., which has offices in OC, was No. 3, with an estimated $80 million in revenue. That figure compares with the companywide total of more than $27 billion.
Adecco is considered the largest human resources company in the world, with 7% of the industry’s market share.
Orange-based Roth Staffing Cos. was No. 5 on the list, with $52.4 million in revenue, up about 1%. It has the highest number of local employees among the entries, with a total of 105 across six offices, after hiring 21 over the past year.
No. 12 Irvine-based PTS Staffing Solutions was the largest gainer on the list in terms of revenue, notching $33.8 million last year, an increase of $8.3 million, or 33%, from a year earlier.
PTS focuses on the technical sector, which is seeing the challenge of a shrinking labor pool, according to Vice President Ron Stein.
Shrinking Worker Base
“Every year, the baby boomers are getting older, and we’re losing more from the potential labor pool than we’re gaining,” he said. “That’s making it tougher to find people, both for the [client] companies and for the staffing firms.”
PTS has 16 employees in its single office, unchanged from a year ago. It has placed 567 temporary workers over the past year, most of them across Los Angeles, the Bay Area and Texas.
“We’re hiring an account manager to open up the OC market for us,” Stein said. “We expect the OC percentage [of our business] to increase over the next several years.”
Costa Mesa-based Mattson Resources LLC moved up five spots to No. 15 with $15.2 million in revenue last year, up about 27% from 2011. The firm placed about 1,900 temporary workers in the past year through March, an 18% increase from the year-ago period.
“Our job order production has almost doubled from 2010,” President Linda Spencer said. “The housing market has given us a boost, and the medical device companies are doing well, so they’re giving us a boost. A big portion of our clientele is medical device.”
Mattson has 37 employees now, up from 28 a year ago. It also has expanded office space recently, going from 4,500 square feet to 7,000 in the same Metro Pointe office building.
Declines
Two firms on this week’s list saw revenue declines.
Santa Ana-based Alar Staffing Corp. was No. 10 after a 6% drop to $35.7 million. The company has 29 employees here, down by two from a year ago.
Irvine-based Priority Business Services had $34 million in 2012 revenue, good for the No. 11 spot. The company had a drop of nearly 11% in revenue from a year prior. The firm has 45 employees here, unchanged from last year.
No. 22 RETS Associates in Newport Beach was the sole newcomer on the list, debuting with a 50% increase in revenue to $3 million. The OC office makes up half of its companywide revenue.
The office, which runs on seven employees, has placed 60 temporary workers in the 12 months through March, up from 40 in the year-earlier span.
Download the 2013 OC’s LARGEST EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES list (pdf)
