Latest report shows worrying decline in temp jobs

The Labor Department’s jobs report for July, released last Friday, showed overall unemployment stayed the same at 9.5 percent, but that the economy lost 5,600 temporary jobs. This ended nine months of gradual increases. Concerned economists say temporary jobs can be seen as a leading economic indicator of how businesses will proceed in the hiring of permanent workers.

With the help of Peter Morici, economist and business professor at the University of Maryland, and Mark Dixon, placement coordinator for Good Temps in New York, a division of Goodwill Industries, we look at how this recent decrease in temporary jobs can help us look ahead to how permanent jobs will look in the near future.