Magnit Contingent Workforce Insights: Driven by Seasonal Staffing, Consumer Products & Services Hiring Rate Increases by 104% in Q4

Contingent workforce hiring overall grew at a slower pace quarter over quarter, driven by hiring declines in Technology, Financial Services, Healthcare, and Manufacturing sectors

24 January, 2024 – Magnit™, an integrated Workforce Management (IWM) platform provider, today shared findings from its Q4 Contingent Workforce Data Analysis, which revealed layoff rates and voluntary termination rates remain stable, while overall hiring volumes grew at a slower pace due to December's historically subdued hiring environment. Additionally, average hourly pay dropped by 8.3% for all roles as employers prepared for the holidays, but removing seasonal roles – which are often lower-paying – from the analysis reveals an almost 4% pay increase in Q4 for non-seasonal/LI roles.

“Although wages fell by 8.3% from Q3, this was largely due to the influx of workers taking lower-paying jobs in the consumer products and services sector,” said Dustin Burgess, Senior Vice President of Strategic Advisory at Magnit. “Overall, we’re seeing hiring appetites across companies dwindling as job postings decrease, with public sector data likely skewed by workers taking lower-paying positions during the holiday season. Given the nature of contract work, we anticipate contingent workforce hiring will rebound quicker from the current hiring slowdown.”

Magnit’s Contingent Workforce Employment Insights provide an independent measure of the contingent workforce labor market (e.g., freelance, gig economy, temp and/or short-term positions, etc.). Magnit uses proprietary algorithms that aggregate, cleanse, anonymize, and analyze data from a variety of internal and external sources, including hundreds of client programs. The company manages data on hundreds of thousands of contingent workers across over 51,000 unique roles, and categories such as tech, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, life sciences, and consumer products and services.

QoQ Changes in U.S. Contingent Workforce Employment: +0.3% hiring volume

Changes by Industry (Sector):

• Technology
  • Hiring volume: -3.8%
  • Layoff: -12.9%
  • Voluntary termination: -28.3%
• Financial Services
  • Hiring volume: -17.2%
  • Layoff: -27.9%
  • Voluntary termination: -14%
• Healthcare
  • Hiring volume: -10.8%
  • Layoff: +8.7%
  • Voluntary termination: +30.1% 

• Consumer Products & Services
  • Hiring volume: +103.8%
  • Layoff: +51.5%  
  • Voluntary termination: +15.4% 

• Manufacturing
  • Hiring volume: -8.8%
  • Layoff: -54.8%
  • Voluntary termination: -53.3%
• Life Sciences
  • Hiring volume: +5.6%
  • Layoff: -23.9%
  • Voluntary termination: -21.8% 

QoQ Change in U.S. Contingent Workforce Average Hourly Pay: -8.3%

QoQ Hourly Pay Changes by Category:

• Technology: +4.7%
• Financial Services: +10.9%
• Healthcare: -7.2%
• Consumer Products & Services: -20.3%
• Manufacturing: -0.2%
• Life Sciences: +6.8%

Other Timely Trends

Degree requirement percentages have fallen year-over-year since the peak of 2021 for both engineering and IT/technology roles. In 2023, engineering degree requirements fell 32%, while IT/technology degree requirements fell 10%. This is a result of more employers utilizing “skills-based hiring,” which focuses more on a worker’s ability to do the job versus where they went to school or what they studied.

To learn more about U.S. labor market trends, read Magnit’s “Winter 2023-24 U.S. Labor Market Report.”

About Magnit
Magnit™ is a global leader and pioneer in contingent workforce management. Our industry-leading Integrated Workforce Management (IWM) Platform is supported by 30+ years of innovation, modern software, proven expertise, and world-class data and intelligence. It enables companies to optimize talent and diversity goals while achieving operational and financial success. With Magnit, companies can adapt quickly to the evolution of work to grow their extended workforce with greater agility, transparency, and speed. magnitglobal.com