NEWS RELEASE

CORESTAFF COMMENTARY:
WHERE ARE THE JOBS?

By Steven Drexel,
CORESTAFF president and chief executive officer

This article is among a series of commentaries written by Steven Drexel discussing key issues and trends affecting today's labor market. Drexel is a member of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Business Research Advisory Council. An archive of past commentaries may be found at www.corestaff.com/press. Please attribute information to Steven Drexel, president and chief executive officer of CORESTAFF Services if you adapt all or part of this piece for articles. If you are interested in connecting with Drexel or receiving more information about CORESTAFF, please contact Sally A. DeVito Jozwiak at 713-438-1567 or sally.jozwiak@corestaff.com.

Below, you will find Drexel's remarks on:

• The job growth outlook
• Productivity growth - has this become a spoiler in an otherwise encouraging economy?
• Where the jobs are

April 2004 - Persistently weak job growth continues to dampen an otherwise encouraging economic story:

• The best corporate profit growth in nearly 20 years
• Rising durable goods orders
• Continuing strong sales of new homes
• Rising industrial production
• Robust retail sales
• The best initial jobless claims data in three years
• Continuing decline of jobless claims
• Improved help-wanted advertising
• Announced layoffs declining

Payroll growth during February was a very disappointing 21,000 jobs compared to an expected 125,000 level. Why the anemic job growth? Employers are squeezing more production from existing workers, driving productivity growth to previously unheard-of levels. Can production continue to grow without creating new jobs? Not in the long run. Eventually, the economy needs more employed consumers to sustain demand.

Is the lack of job growth likely to stall the economy? Probably not; the economy is fundamentally healthy. Historically, periods of strong productivity growth are followed by strong job growth. It is likely that we’ll experience this again; however, it is impossible to confidently say when strong job growth will return. The improvement is long overdue so we should turn the corner very soon.

Additional Observations:

1. March Unemployment Number – It will probably be unchanged from February’s 5.6 percent.
   Job creation should improve but the low labor participation rate suggests that higher employment may be offset by an increasing number of job seekers.
   
   
2. Industries seeing the most job growth;
   Services has the most increase in employment, but a firming manufacturing sector is driving the broader economic improvement.
   
   
3. Geographies seeing the most job growth;
   Growth is pretty evenly distributed across the Federal Reserve districts. Las Vegas, Atlanta, Phoenix-Mesa, Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale, and Northern VA are some of the metropolitan markets experiencing the greatest growth.
   

About CORESTAFF Services

CORESTAFF Services is one of the largest national staffing firms in America, with offices in 19 states. CORESTAFF also operates as TeleSec CORESTAFF in the Washington, DC area and Leafstone Staffing Services in the New York City and northern New Jersey metropolitan areas and southern Connecticut. CORESTAFF is not affiliated with Core Staffing Services, Inc. which operates in the New York Metro Area. CORESTAFF is headquartered in Houston, Texas; 713-438-1400.

Visit CORESTAFF Services on the Web at: www.corestaff.com, www.it.corestaff.com, www.careertrust.com, www.techresources.coretaff.com, www.infocurrent.com and www.employmentzone.org.

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