Nick Uresin had little reason to celebrate during Valentine's Day weekend in 2009. That's when he was forced to lay off half of his eight employees at Tuccini Corp., an e-commerce business he started in 2004.
“My heart was broken,” said Mr. Uresin, whose New Hyde Park, L.I., company sells designer fragrances online. “I didn't know what was around the corner.”
Fortunately, what awaited him was an increase in sales. Revenues doubled from 2009 to 2010, and Mr. Uresin expects them to triple this year.
Still, he has hesitated to add new permanent hires to his payroll. Instead, he's turned to temporary employees to handle the extra work until he's sure that the recovery is for real.
“It really comes down to business volume,” Mr. Uresin said. “The minute that's sustainable, we'll find permanent staff.”
As companies across New York continue to claw their way out of the recession, many employers have turned to temporary help to beef up shrunken staff rosters now stretched thin by recent upticks in business.
The employment-services segment, which includes temp and staffing agencies, ballooned by more than 20% in the city in 2010, adding 11,600 jobs, according to a recent analysis of state Department of Labor statistics by real estate services firm Eastern Consolidated. That's more than the 10,200 new jobs in health services last year, which represented a 2.5% increase, or the 10,000 jobs added in educational services, a 6% rise. And the absolute job growth is second only to that in the restaurant industry, which delivered 11,700 new positions last year, up 5.8%.
While this bonanza in temporary help means that companies are adding workers again, it also signals that they're not quite ready to commit to full-time hires—which would also require that they shell out for health care, paid vacations, retirement and other employee benefits.
“Companies are being cautious,” said Richard Deosingh, a regional vice president for staffing firm Robert Half International. “Employers want to make sure that the need is justified. The last thing they want to do is cut again.”
Many employers who do hope to make permanent offers have turned to temporary hires as one way to field candidates and avoid hiring the wrong people.
Once business began to pick up again for Tuccini in the middle of 2009, Mr. Uresin said, he decided to try out a number of individuals to ensure that he found the best candidate for future permanent work. He was able to do that by creating temp positions.
“We're not hiring a brain surgeon,” he said. “But a person with aspirations to grow is hard to find, especially in a down economy.”
Now Mr. Uresin is back to eight full-time employees. Four are on the payroll, two are in temp-to-permanent positions and two are simply temps.
“Clients are using temporary help in much more strategic ways now,” said Bob Kovalsky, a senior vice president with Adecco Staffing U.S. “It's scalable: They can hire quickly and downsize quickly, as demand goes away.”

Ahead of the curve

This nimbler approach is clearly reflected in the employment data, said Barbara Byrne Denham, chief economist for Eastern Consolidated. Her analysis of the city's economic recovery in 2002 shows a nine-month lag between the time that temp firms started adding jobs and the time that legal, accounting and engineering firms began filling permanent posts. During the current recovery, however, temp hiring has been strong for 20 months, while the legal, accounting and engineering sectors have yet to start bringing on full-timers again in big numbers.
“They have the bodies,” Ms. Denham said. “They're just not on the payroll.”
That can be tough on workers who have seen temp jobs last for months and months and months without being converted to permanent posts as planned.
Cassandra Nuamah was told in May 2010 that her new job as a digital project manager at a midtown advertising firm was a temp-to-perm position. Ten months later, the transition hadn't taken place.

Living in limbo

“Basically, I was perma-lancing,” said Ms. Nuamah, who found the job through a temporary employment agency five months after being laid off from Ogilvy & Mather, where she had worked for nearly five years. The 27-year-old Harlem resident's new gig provided no paid sick days, vacation time or health care benefits.
“I was doing everything like a full-time employee,” she said. “It was pretty frustrating.”
Mr. Deosingh of Robert Half notes that while temps may not have health care and vacation time, their work offers them benefits beyond a steady stream of income. For example, it positions people to showcase their talents to employers and offers them chances to update their skills.
“I see those things greatly outweighing the concerns of being a consistent temporary worker,” he said.
They're also good for Robert Half: The international staffing agency's revenues jumped 5% in 2010, to $3.2 billion.
Those benefits did eventually pay off for Ms. Nuamah. On April 1, the advertising firm offered her a permanent position. And it wasn't an April Fool's joke.
“They know better than to play around with that topic,” she said. “I've been asking about a full-time job forever.”