temp workers

Ford said Friday it plans to offer permanent positions to 500 temporary workers at a plant in Saarlouis, Germany, that will build the next-generation Focus compact car, which begins production next month. The plant will be the only supplier of the new Focus model to Western Europe.

Manufacturing activity in the mid-Atlantic region showed modest improvement in October, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, which saw its Business Outlook Survey rise to 1.0. However, despite that return to positive territory overall, key index components continued to reveal economic softness.

Last week's employment report was disappointing: Employers cut double the number of jobs expected, added fewer new ones than predicted, and even temp job numbers fell to a loss. Is this a trend or an anomaly?

Investors should ignore the broader jobs debate and hone in on one aspect that seems indisputably strong: the pickup in temp hiring. And more hiring in that area could be good for Manpower and Robert Half International.

While massive layoffs continue to mount even as the unemployment rate blows past 10%, the market for temporary hires is booming. On Friday, the Labor Department said that temporary-worker payrolls rose by 34,000 in October -- the biggest gain in two years. It was the third consecutive monthly gain...

Waiting for an economic recovery to trigger new job creation is like showing up for brunch in New York City without reservations . . . be prepared to sit around for a while. According to a recent study by outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a copy of which DailyFinance...