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Ohio Employment Report: Employee Confidence Rebounds in May

COLUMBUS, Ohio, June 19, 2009 — Despite record job loss throughout the state, the Ohio Employee Confidence Index jumped 5.6 points to 47.4 in May, according to the latest Spherion^® Employment Report. The monthly survey conducted by Harris Interactive^® on behalf of Spherion Corporation (NYSE:SFN), reveals the second consecutive month of improvement in the Index. Specifically, more workers reported that the economy is staying the same and more expressed confidence in their personal ability to find a new job.

May 2009 Employment Report Results		Ohio Workers			U.S. Workers
		Apr	May	% Point Change	Apr	May	% Point Change
Economy	Getting Stronger	15%	16%	+1	16%	20%	+4
	Staying Same	32%	54%	+22	38%	42%	+4
	Getting Weaker	53%	30%	-23	46%	38%	-8
Job Availability	More Jobs	4%	9%	+5	5%	8%	+3
	Same Amount	22%	19%	-3	20%	21%	+1
	Fewer Jobs	73%	73%	0	75%	71%	-4
Ability to Find New Job	Confident	26%	36%	+10	38%	42%	+4
	Neutral	45%	39%	-6	35%	34%	-1
	Not Confident	29%	24%	-5	26%	24%	-2
Future of Current Employer	Confident	58%	58%	0	65%	63%	-2
	Neutral	29%	30%	+1	22%	25%	+3
	Not Confident	13%	12%	-1	13%	13%	0
Likelihood to Lose Job	Likely	24%	19%	-5	18%	16%	-2
	Neutral	13%	14%	+1	12%	13%	+1
	Not Likely	62%	67%	+5	70%	71%	+1
Likelihood to Look for New Job	Likely	39%	40%	+1	34%	34%	0
	Neutral	14%	17%	+3	12%	12%	0
	Not Likely	47%	43%	-4	54%	53%	-1

About the Spherion Employment Report

Methodology

About Harris Interactive

About Spherion

Spherion Corporation (NYSE:SFN) is a leading recruiting and staffing company that provides integrated solutions and breakout specialties to meet the evolving needs of companies and job candidates. As an industry pioneer for more than 60 years, Spherion has sourced, screened and placed millions of individuals in temporary, temp-to-hire and full-time jobs.

With approximately 630 locations in the United States and Canada, Spherion delivers innovative workforce solutions that improve business performance. Spherion provides its services to approximately 10,000 customers, from Fortune 500 companies to a wide range of small and mid-size organizations. Employing more than 215,000 people annually through its network, Spherion is one of North America’s largest employers. Spherion operates under the following brands: Spherion Staffing Services Group for administrative, clerical and light industrial workers; Technisource for technology professionals and solutions; The Mergis Group for accounting and finance and other professional positions; Todays Office Professionals for specialty administrative personnel; and Spherion Recruitment Process Outsourcing. To learn more, visit www.spherion.com

Results from the Ohio Employment Report:

More workers believe the economy is staying the same. Specifically, 54 percent versus 32 percent in April, representing a 22 percentage point increase.
More than a third of workers (36 percent) are confident in their ability to find a new job, compared to 26 percent the previous month.
Sixty-seven percent of workers believe it is not likely they will lose their jobs, representing an increase of five percentage points from April.
Forty percent of workers indicated that they are likely to job search within the next 12 months, up one percentage point from the previous month.

“We welcome the continued uptick in our Index. We believe that this rise in optimism can likely be attributed to recent economic news and reports suggesting that the economic downturn could potentially be bottoming out,” said Robert Schulte, Spherion franchise owner in Ohio. “However, we remain cautiously optimistic about the anticipated impact of the stimulus package here in Ohio and believe that it is still too soon to determine when we will see definitive signs of an economic recovery.”