Top Echelon Contracting has reported in numerous blog posts that contract staffing has surged even as hiring across the board continues to lag. A recent forecast by staffing industry consulting firm G. Palmer & Associates predicts that this trend will continue through at least the end of the year.

According to the Palmer Forecast, demand for temporary/contract help is expected to increase by 20.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis in the fourth quarter when compared to the last quarter of 2009. If this proves to be accurate, this will be the fourth consecutive quarter of increases. Contract staffing grew by 21.6 percent in the third quarter of 2010, overshooting the Palmer Forecast's predicted 20.3 percent increase.The driving force behind the success of temporary/contract staffing seems to be the still uncertain economy.

Temporary jobs have accounted for 36 percent of the jobs created this year with 217,000 temp jobs being added since the beginning of the year.

Debbie Fledderjohann is the President of Top Echelon Contracting, Inc.