According to the latest report of the Labour Market Observatory of the Colombian Association of Staffing Companies (Acoset), activity among Colombian staffing companies increased during 2015 after suffering a decrease during 2014. Colombian staffing industry revenue is now close to COP 9.000 billion (USD 3.3 billion).

Colombian staffing activity grew by 3.14% in 2015 compared to 2014, which means 15,600 new temps were hired. During 2015, the Colombian staffing market employed 513,000 temporary workers, accounting for 5.8% of the entire formal workforce.

Miguel Pérez García, president of Acoset, said the decrease experienced in previous years was due to the elections context, which causes stagnation in public sector hiring intentions and keeps the private sector on the edge. In addition, there was a progressive reduction of exports to Venezuela.

However, the attempts to replace this market with the United States, Central America and Europe, counteracted such reduction.

The current growth may be explained by the fact that, during fluctuating times, companies make the most of the more flexible schemes offered by staffing companies, which makes it possible to hire workers to satisfy the shifting needs of the activity.

The sectors that created more temporary jobs were manufacturing, which employed 133,400 people through staffing companies, followed by commerce, 102,600 jobs, and services, 82,100.

Regarding seasonality, the peaks happen from October to December, the time of the year in which companies increase their production and employ more salespeople due to Christmas season. In addition, the tourism and entertainment sectors also experience increases during that period of time.

It is important to point out that temporary services are a means of labour formalization in every economic sector and, most importantly, in the rural sector, where labour supply needs are deeply affected by seasonality. Pérez García claims that, by providing further regulation to the staffing industry, it gains more institutional support and strength.

“The challenge of staffing companies is to go along the modernization of the Colombian productive system in order to keep on providing top quality services,” said Martín Padulla, founder and managing director of staffingamericalatina.

“For instance, the situation of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in cities such as Medellin is very interesting. Lots of highly trained young tech entrepreneurs need strategic allies with high standards of quality and variety in human capital services,” Padulla concluded.

Source: Staffing Industry Analysts