“Generally speaking, we think the labor market is still fairly robust," said Kip Wright, senior vice president of Manpower North America, part of ManpowerGroup Inc. "We’ve certainly seen certain sectors that had some weaknesses, like manufacturing. But they’ve bottomed out to some extent and are starting to stabilize."

In perhaps a sign of strength, companies seem more willing to take on permanent workers rather than hiring temporary help. “They’re gaining more confidence,” Wright said. “Our full-time hiring business is growing at significant double-digit numbers.”

That said, some staffing-company executives describe labor-market conditions that are more reminiscent of an expansion that is closer to its end than its beginning.

Wages Rising

They say it’s hard to find workers to meet the needs of their clients and report that wages are starting to increase as a result -- developments that typically occur in the latter half of an expansion as the economy begins to reach its limits.

“We’re probably two-thirds of the way through the cycle” that began in June 2009, said Michael Gapen, chief U.S. economist at Barclays Plc in New York.

The history of cyclical fluctuations in the U.S. suggests that the "odds are significantly better than 50-50 that we will have a recession within the next three years," former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers told a group of economists in Cambridge, Massachusetts on April 15.

While the government has reported that the labor force has grown by more than two million workers over the past six months, Funk said he isn’t seeing that in his business, with the number of people he has available to fill jobs down from last year.

Worker Return

Tom Gimbel, chief executive officer of Chicago-based staffing company LaSalle Network, is seeing some people come off the sidelines and resume working. But it’s more a trickle than a torrent, he said, adding, “I think it’s running pretty dry.”