No Job Is Forever Especially For Temporary Workers, Who Are Keeping Busy In A Hot Spokane Market
Despite predictions that the local economy will slow in 1999, owners of Spokane temporary employment companies say for most sectors, demand for part-time workers remains strong.
That’s good news for workers like Patti Quick, who recently signed on with Accounting Pros and quickly was placed in a job at SuperValu, a distribution company in the Valley.
“They don’t leave you sitting around for long,” Quick says. “If you want to work, you can.”
With tax deadlines nearing, corporate needs for accounting workers become pronounced, said Debbie Wilson, a staffing manager with Accounting Pros.
Quick has done bookkeeping and other accounting work since 1993. In November, she took the CPA exam and is awaiting the results.
The best part about temp work, says Quick, 39, is the variety.
“If the work doesn’t bring variety, at least the people do,” she said.
Quick notes that she and her family don’t have plans to stay in the Spokane area much longer.
Her husband, in aircraft maintenance at Fairchild, will retire in a year and a move appears likely.
While most temp agencies don’t offer benefits, Quick and her family are covered by the military - removing stress that many other temp workers face.
After a move, Quick hopes to find a permanent accounting job, but says she’ll try to use temp work as a way of getting a position with a company.
Julie Prafke, owner and president of Humanix, said, “Each year there seems to be more and more demand (for temp workers).”
Prafke added, “We seem to have more business than we can service.”
Humanix payrolls list about 800 temps each week, said Prafke, making it the largest agency in the area.
While it’s not unusual for temp organizations to see less business early in the year, Prafke said that has not been the case for the major sectors Humanix services.
But Tom Droz, the local franchise owner for Manpower Inc., said that placing workers in light industrial jobs has slumped during the first quarter.
That business sector, said Droz, is highly cyclical. Winter is a down time.
“Traditionally, the first quarter is dismal for Spokane,” he said.
Droz was the least bullish of temp agency owners interviewed.
Although he said the minimum wage increase likely didn’t catch any employers off guard, he did say in terms of worker pay, “Spokane is slowing down.”
In Manpower’s first-quarter forecast survey, 10 percent of the employers responding had plans to add to their payrolls. The survey also found 23 percent were preparing for cutbacks and 64 percent were planning no changes.
Droz said temp employment is still growing locally, though his company’s growth rate was slightly lower in 1998 than 1997.
Two other temp agency managers said their business prospects appear promising for 1999.
Ginger Killough, Spokane manager of Labor Ready, said that while the market is highly competitive, her company had a strong performance last year and she expects growth to continue.
Ira Amstadter, franchise owner of Express Personnel Services, also said the area’s temp industry remains hot.
As for the companies that hire temps, Liz Cox, spokeswoman for Hewlett-Packard in Liberty Lake, said the company has employed more temp workers this year.
H-P’s main reason for the increase is due to new product releases. The circuit board division at the Liberty Lake complex is mainly responsible for the increase, she said.
Cox also said temp levels at H-P might be even higher if not for the Asian fiscal crisis, which has cut demand for the cellular-testing equipment made at the plant. That has resulted in some temp layoffs, she said.
At Itron, the Spokane manufacturer of meter-reading equipment, Human Resources Director Paul Boxleitner said the company isn’t seeing a growing need for fill-in employees. “This is probably one of our lower points in demand for temporary labor,” he said.
Boxleitner said the company has 550 Spokane employees; about 30 are temps.
He also said the company doesn’t have immediate plans to add to its work force this year.