Press Room

FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla., March 4, 2005 — Despite a small drop in the percentage of workers’ confident in their personal employment situation, the Spherion^® Employee Confidence Index remained at 59 in February. The February Employment Report, conducted by Harris Interactive^® on behalf of Spherion Corporation (NYSE:SFN), also showed that job security is not a concern for most adult workers in the United States, with 79 percent reporting that they feel it is unlikely their jobs will be eliminated in the next year.

The Employee Confidence Index held steady at 59 for the second straight month, increasing from an average score of 57 for the last six months of 2004, primarily because of increasing optimism about the economy and job market. The Macroeconomic Confidence Index, which measures workers’ confidence in job availability and the strength of the economy was also unchanged at 44, after averaging 42 for the last half of 2004. The Personal Confidence Index, measuring workers’ confidence in their personal employment situation, decreased slightly from 75 to 73, as fewer workers had a positive outlook on their ability to find a new job and the future of their current employer. For detailed information on the calculation of the Employee Confidence Index, please see the “About the Spherion Employment Report” section below.

“With another month of steady job growth, the Spherion Employment Report continues to reflect workers’ confidence in their personal employment situation and sense of job security,” said Roy Krause, Spherion president and chief executive officer. “Workers are also slowly becoming more confident in the overall strength of the economy and job availability. We anticipate that these confidence levels will likely increase on an incremental basis if current job market and economic trends continue.”

Results from the February Spherion Employment Report:

Employee Confidence Index: Overall Index Unaffected By Small Decline in Personal Confidence

• The overall Employee Confidence Index was 59 in February, reflecting no change from the previous month, despite a small decrease in the percentage of workers’ confident about the future of their employer and in their ability to find a new job.
• Macroeconomic Confidence Index: In February, U.S. workers’ confidence in the job market and strength of economy remained at 44, unchanged from the previous month.

Specific findings from Macroeconomic Confidence Index include:

• 24 percent of U.S. adult workers believe that more jobs are available, unchanged from January.
• 30 percent of U.S. adult workers believe that the economy is getting stronger, unchanged from the prior month.

• Personal Confidence Index: The level of personal confidence regarding employment decreased to 73, compared to 75 in January.

Specific findings from Personal Confidence Index include:

• 64 percent of adult workers in the U.S. feel confident in the future of their employer, down two percentage points from the previous month.
• 59 percent of adult workers in the U.S. have confidence in their own ability to find a new job, compared to 62 percent in January.

Job Security Index: 79 Percent of Workers Feel Their Job is Secure

• 79 percent of adult workers feel it is unlikely that their jobs will be eliminated in the next 12 months, unchanged from the prior month.

Job Transition Index: Nearly 40 Percent Likely to Search for New Job

• 38 percent of adult workers in the U.S. said they are likely to look for a new job in the next year, unchanged from January.

About the Spherion Employment Report
As part of the Spherion^® Emerging Workforce^® Series of employment surveys, the monthly Spherion Employment Report provides a snapshot of the latest workforce trends across the country and is issued in conjunction with state and national labor market releases. Three key indices are measured: the Spherion Job Security Index, which captures how likely respondents think it is that they will lose their job or that their job will be eliminated in the next 12 months; the Spherion Job Transition Index, which captures how likely respondents are to look for a new job in the next 12 months and the Employee Confidence Index that measures employees’ overall confidence in the economy, their employer and their ability to find other employment. The Employee Confidence Index is calculated from the results of four components that reflect these aspects of employee confidence. For each component item a ‘score’ is calculated by taking the difference of the percentage of positive responses and the percentage of negative responses. These four scores are then averaged to indicate an overall level of employee confidence and is scaled from 0 (no confidence) to 100 (complete confidence). A reading above 50 indicates a positive confidence level.

Methodology
The February 2005 Spherion^® Employment Report is based on data from the Harris Interactive QuickQuery^SM online omnibus conducted monthly by Harris Interactive^® on behalf of Spherion Corporation. A U.S. sample of 3,193 employed adults, aged 18 years and older, was interviewed in a series of two polls conducted between February 9-11 and February 14-16, 2005 (for January 2004 n=2,562). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, income, education and region were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting adjusted for respondents’ propensity to be online. In theory, with probability samples of this size, one could say with 95 percent certainty that the results have a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points of what they would be if the entire U.S. population of employed adults had been polled with complete accuracy. This online sample was not a probability sample.< /FONT>

About Spherion
Spherion Corporation is a leader in the staffing industry in North America, providing value-added staffing, recruiting and workforce solutions. Spherion has helped companies improve their bottom line by efficiently planning, acquiring and optimizing talent since 1946. To learn more, visit www.spherion.com.

About Harris Interactive^®
Harris Interactive Inc. (www.harrisinteractive.com), the 15th largest and fastest-growing market research firm in the world, is a Rochester, N.Y.-based global research company that blends premier strategic consulting with innovative and efficient methods of investigation, analysis and application. Known for The Harris Poll^® and for pioneering Internet-based research methods, Harris Interactive conducts proprietary and public research to help its clients achieve clear, material and enduring results.

Harris Interactive combines its intellectual capital, databases and technology to advance market leadership through U.S. offices and wholly owned subsidiaries: London-based HI Europe (www.hieurope.com), Paris-based Novatris (www.novatris.com), Tokyo-based Harris Interactive Japan, through newly acquired WirthlinWorldwide, a Reston, Virginia-based research and consultancy firm ranked 25th largest in the world, and through an independent global network of affiliate market research companies.