Kelly Services Advance Comment on Unemployment Rate Announcement

TROY, Mich. (Nov. 5, 2003) ? The following commentary by Terry Adderley, chairman and chief executive officer, and Carl Camden, president of global staffing company Kelly Services, Inc., is offered in advance of the October unemployment rate announcement due Friday from the U.S. Department of Labor. The September unemployment rate was unchanged at 6.1 percent, and the economy gained a reported 57,000 jobs that month.

"We believe that the economic recovery is real and sustainable," said Adderley. "This belief is based on the coming together of three factors: the strengthening of both the U.S. economy and international economies, and real growth in our own business. The staffing industry has been a good concurrent indicator of economic growth. For Kelly in  particular, after nearly three quarters of low growth, the demand for temporary staffing in the United States has begun to significantly improve alongside the general labor market. The economic recovery in the U.S. is building momentum. Economic and employment conditions outside the U.S. have also been improving. Our staffing numbers have improved in the majority of the countries in which we operate," said Adderley.

Camden said that while many Kelly customers appear to be exercising some caution in their staffing decisions, "they have turned more positive in their outlook. We believe this optimism will translate into stronger, more sustainable growth in temporary assignments. We are seeing early signs of improving job markets. The holiday hiring period now underway will serve as a key gauge of whether the job market can maintain or build on this early momentum and bury any lingering uncertainty," said Camden. Adderley added, "While we think this recovery is for real, there are no guarantees that the declines we experienced this year as the economy stalled are completely behind us. We continue to believe that the U.S. and global recoveries are fragile."

Camden noted that Kelly continues to see strong demand for workers in health care, finance and education, while technology jobs continue to rebound from their deep lows. "In other occupations, there are still more candidates than jobs. The unemployment rate may actually rise during the early stages of job-creation, as the amount of available jobs will lag the number of newly encouraged people reentering the job market. In fact, large-scale layoffs and cutbacks persist in corporate America."