Temporary-help agencies here are enjoying an upsurge in what they call their direct-hire business, in which they refer job candidates to employers who want to fill positions on a permanent, rather than a temporary, basis.


The change began to emerge in the first quarter this year, says Julie Prafke, chairwoman, president, and CEO of Humanix Corp., of Spokane, which owns and operates Humanix Personnel Services, Promanix, and Humanix Technology Centers.


Were getting more orders for direct hire, which is the last part of the industry to come back, Prafke says. She quips, Its what we used to call permanent placement, but theres nothing permanent in employment anymore.


Demand for permanent employees has picked up months after demand for temporary help rebounded, Prafke says.


Business itself really started to come back in July 2003, Prafke says. Its consistently back to 1999-2000 levels. Those were good periods, before a sharp economic downturn that included dramatic slowdowns in the dot-com and information-technology sectors, she says.


So far this year, Humanixs business is up 33 percent, Prafke says.


Erick Fahsholtz, owner and staffing manager at Provisional Staffing Services, also of Spokane, says, Our permanent placements and direct-hire placements are strong, but theyve been strong since a year ago.


In general, he says, business is good and getting better, but its not as good as it was in 2001, when a shortage of workers prompted employers to seek job candidates, he says. Now, theres a balance between the number of available workers and employers needs to hire people, he says.


Tom Droz, owner of the Manpower Inc. personnel agency here, says that direct hire pretty much went away for the depths of the recession. It has rebounded, but Droz says he has seen the local economy snap back at a faster clip in the past. While Manpowers business is up 30 percent, its business has increased at a much faster pace when the economy has come out of past recessions, Droz says. So far this time, I dont know what the recovery is going to be like, he says.


Fahsholtz, while echoing part of what Prafke says, adds that Provisional Staffing Services specialties, providing professional and health-care employees, are different from Humanixs specialty of supplying manufacturing workers, although Humanix serves other industries.


For Provisional Staffing Services, demand for accounting and finance workers and medical and dental personnel has been good, Fahsholtz says. He adds, Our bread and butter is in temp-to-hire, which is placing job candidates who are looking for permanent, rather than temporary, work, and direct hire.


Says Prafke, Were seeing manufacturing demand come back. Thats encouraging, she says, because manufacturing is a bellwether industry that provides good jobs and purchases heavily to support its own operations.


Office services is still lagging a little bit, Prafke says. I think the technology industry is very slowly coming back.


She adds, The health-care industry is hot. Thats something we dont generally place people in, except for office, because of liability issues.


Humanix, which employs 30, has been placing about 600 temporary workers a week, with 60 percent to 65 percent of them converting to permanent employment over time after having been hired on a temporary basis originally, Prafke says.


When the economy was lagging here, Humanix was placing about 400 workers a week, and about 40 percent of them were converting to permanent positions, Prafke says.


Droz says that at Manpower, Our temp-to-hire is up, and the agency is having more conversions.