Sector Snap: Shares Of Staffing Companies Mixed

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) —Shares of MPS Group Inc. rose Monday along with the stocks of some of its peers after an analyst upgraded the Jacksonville, Fla. staffing company.

Tobey Sommer, an analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, upgraded the stock to "Buy" from "Neutral" and he set a $13 price target. Job postings on the MPS Web site rose 9 percent last month over June's level, he said. Jobs for accounting, information technology, health care and legal services all showed gains.

Professional staffing stocks usually move in the opposite direction of the college-educated unemployment rate, Sommer said. That rate has been rising but its rate of increase is starting to ease, indicating that staffing stocks are most likely set for gains.

In addition, another analyst said staffing companies will begin to recover next year as the U.S. labor market improves, an analyst said Monday.

Deutsche Bank analyst Paul Ginocchio said in a note to investors that the July employment report released by the U.S. Department of Labor on Friday was stronger than expected with an improvement in the average workweek and a strong increase in the factory workweek.