While permanent hiring remains important, more companies are embedding temporary labor into their core workforce strategies. A recent study by Consegic Business Intelligence found that manufacturing accounted for the largest share of temporary labor use by revenue in 2024, with the overall temporary labor market projected to grow at a 4.6% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) through 2025 (https://www.consegicbusinessintelligence.com/temporary-labor-market).
Temporary staffing is no longer viewed as a short-term solution. Instead, it’s becoming essential to business resilience and operational flexibility.
Manufacturing Leads the Surge in Temporary Labor Demand
Manufacturing is facing acute and persistent labor shortages. According to the National Association of Manufacturers, nearly 2.1 million manufacturing jobs could go unfilled by 2030 (https://www.nam.org/workforce/). The sector’s need for skilled and semi-skilled workers has outpaced supply, even as production reshoring and nearshoring accelerate.
Flexible staffing has emerged as a powerful solution to this gap. Manufacturers are increasingly using temporary labor models to:
- Ramp up production quickly in response to demand surges
- Fill roles that require immediate but non-permanent staffing
- Manage labor costs in an environment of rising wages and inflation
This shift reflects a strategic recalibration: flexible workforce solutions are being integrated into long-term labor planning, not just peak season stopgaps.
Building Workforce Resilience in a Volatile Economy
Flexible staffing models are not just about filling roles quickly — they are about building more resilient workforces.
Temporary labor offers companies:
- Rapid response capabilities during demand spikes or emergencies
- Reduced fixed labor costs
- The ability to trial new processes, facilities, or markets without heavy upfront commitments
- Access to specialized skills on an as-needed basis
- Help navigating uncertainty — whether driven by economic cycles, supply chain disruptions, or evolving customer demands
Labor planners today must account for global trade tensions, shifting tariffs, and the threat of trade wars and other new layers of complexity in their supply chain strategies. For example, recent U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods, set to increase throughout 2025, are reshaping sourcing and manufacturing decisions. Meanwhile, retaliatory tariffs from major trading partners are driving up costs and prompting companies to reexamine their supply networks.
Temporary labor fits this volatile economic reality. It gives businesses the ability to flex their workforce based on new production locations, changing import/export patterns and evolving customer needs.
Right now, when global trade policies can shift overnight, workforce planning flexibility has become a core survival strategy.
The Future of Work Is Flexible
Temporary labor is no longer a ‘band-aid’ solution for unexpected absences or seasonal peaks. It is a permanent part of workforce strategy for manufacturers, warehouse operators and logistics companies.
By building flexible labor into their operational models, companies can better navigate supply chain disruptions, respond to market changes, and control labor costs. More importantly, they position themselves to thrive at a time when agility and resilience are more important than ever.
Temporary Labor and the Complexities of Nearshoring and Reshoring
The rise of nearshoring and reshoring has created new labor demands across North American supply chains. Companies relocating operations closer to the U.S. are often relying on temporary labor to staff new facilities quickly and manage transitional phases without long-term commitments.
Temporary staffing helps organizations:
- Flexibly scale operations in new domestic or nearshore locations
- Bridge workforce gaps while permanent pipelines are built
- Maintain operational agility amid evolving trade policies
However, while reshoring momentum remains strong, recent trade tensions and the prospect of sustained global tariffs could complicate future investment decisions. According to the Kearney 2025 Reshoring Index, although reshoring intentions remain high, actual reshoring activity slowed modestly in late 2024 amid new uncertainties in U.S.-China and U.S.-Mexico trade relations (https://www.kearney.com/operations-performance-transformation/reshoring-index).
As companies navigate these shifting conditions, temporary labor remains a flexible tool, but broader geopolitical developments will likely influence how aggressively nearshoring and reshoring continue.
