Like most sectors of the economy, the staffing industry took a hit last year. Staffing covers a wide range of services, including permanent job placement, executive recruiting and search, and temporary employees, as well as niches such as office workers, professionals, health-care employees, industrial workers and more.

In the fourth quarter of 2008, staffing industry employment -- which had been decreasing gradually during the first three quarters of 2008 -- dropped dramatically, down 19.5 percent from the same quarter in 2007, according to the American Staffing Association. The temporary help industry in particular was hit hard, losing 27 percent of its workers in the past year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Has the industry hit bottom? It’s hard to say, but some industry experts are cautiously optimistic. According to Staffing Industry Analysts, the staffing industry overall is expected to shrink by 10.3 percent this year, but professional staffing is projected to grow by 0.8 percent this year, and health-care staffing by 1.5 percent. Within health care, locum tenens (temporary physicians) are a particular bright spot, with projected growth of 14 percent.