Pasadena, CA -- (SBWIRE) -- 09/02/2010 -- Companies in the San Francisco Bay Area are hiring more temporary workers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that means that more regular, full-time employment opportunities are going to increase soon.

The reasoning behind this optimistic outlook is that during the downturn in the region’s economy in the early 2000s, temp jobs fell before regular jobs and then they were the first to pick up. Temp jobs are often turned into regular jobs once the economy picks up.

The temp sector does not capture the many thousands of consultants, contractors, and other nontraditional types of workers common in Silicon Valley's tech industry. The valley had around 18,000 temp jobs and the San Francisco metro area over 13,000, with Oakland over 14,000.

Amar Mann, an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics at its San Francisco office calls it a “favorable omen” The San Jose region’s private sector employed 752,900 in July 2010 compared to July 2009’s 751,600. The Bureau says that temp agencies are taking on increasing numbers of people from technical and professional backgrounds.

Although temp jobs are often seen as a way to cut labor costs by employees, A. Harrison Barnes, CEO of SanJoseCrossing, says has a different take on this. “In a tough job market, where more jobs are getting outsourced, temp jobs are a foot in the door which you should take even if they pay is not what you used to get.” SanJoseCrossing is a niche job aggregator site, targeting only the San Jose metro area.