Ahead of Staffing World 2026, we are looking at the people and ideas that can help staffing leaders understand both. Our first spotlight is Lightcast, whose labor market research gives agencies a more precise starting point than “workers are hard to find.”
Teambridge will be attending Staffing World in Denver, October 12 to 14. Lightcast's Ron Hetrick is listed on the official program for the October 14 closing keynote, The Fault Lines Shaping the Workforce: What Comes Next for Staffing Leaders. His session is scheduled for 1 to 2 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time. The program remains subject to change. See the ASA speaker listing and session.
The numbers worth bringing to Denver
Lightcast's August 25, 2026 announcement of Defining the Skilled Trades describes a national shortage that recruiting teams cannot simply advertise away.
Lightcast research, August 2026
A constrained supply of new skilled trade workers
Roughly three openings for each person completing relevant training.
Estimated skilled trade job openings across the United States each year.
Roughly this share of annual openings comes from retirements.
These figures describe different parts of the problem. Training output concerns new entrants. Annual openings describe the flow of opportunities, not vacancies on a particular morning. Retirement demand means employers need replacements as well as people for growth.
The training ratio is not a count of all available candidates. Experienced workers changing employers or returning to work are not interchangeable with new training completers. Nor does a national figure establish the supply for a particular occupation, location or shift.
Why the definition matters before the forecast
Lightcast identifies 135 occupations using six digit Standard Occupational Classification codes. Its definition focuses on work performed in person that requires specialized preparation, such as an apprenticeship, certification or experience, without requiring a bachelor's degree. The accompanying occupation list gives teams a consistent reference for deciding which jobs belong in their analysis. Lightcast's framework and occupation list.
For a staffing agency, that is a practical discipline: define the role before discussing the shortage. Two clients can use the same job title while asking for different skills, credentials and responsibilities. Combining those requisitions can hide the very constraint a recruiter needs to explain.
Before comparing markets, write down the occupation, required qualifications, location, pay range and working hours. Check that the comparison describes the assignment you actually need to fill. A compelling national headline is a reason to investigate, not a substitute for that investigation.
The people behind the research
Ron Hetrick: the labor supply perspective
Ron Hetrick is a Principal Economist at Lightcast. The company's expert directory identifies demographics, immigration, government data and missing workers among his areas of expertise. For staffing leaders, those are useful lenses for asking whether a hiring challenge reflects a temporary slowdown or a more persistent supply constraint. Lightcast's expert directory.
Hetrick is the confirmed Staffing World speaker featured in this article. His October 14 keynote is an opportunity to hear his perspective directly. View his conference session.
In Lightcast's skilled trades research materials, he puts the longer term challenge succinctly:
“They’re desperately needed now, but critically needed later.”
The comment refers to skilled trade workers. It comes from Lightcast's published research materials, not an interview conducted for this article. Read Hetrick's comments in context.
Matt Walsh: making the research usable
Matt Walsh, Lightcast's Director of Research, also contributes a perspective to the report's public overview. He emphasizes the importance of reliable labor market evidence for decisions about growth and investment. Lightcast's research overview.
For an agency, that raises a useful question: can the research explain a specific client decision, such as where to recruit or which training pathway to support? Walsh is included here for his research perspective. His attendance at Staffing World has not been confirmed in the sources reviewed.
What Lightcast offers staffing teams
The research is one part of the company. Lightcast also offers tools for understanding talent supply, employer demand, compensation and competition. Three offerings connect particularly well to the decisions in this article. The descriptions below summarize Lightcast's published product information, not hands on testing or promised results.
| Offering | What it helps a staffing team examine | A useful question to bring |
|---|---|---|
| Lightcast Recruit | Talent supply by skills and geography, pay comparisons and employers competing for similar talent | Is the offer realistic for the people and place we need? |
| Staffing Analyst | Occupations, regional labor markets, compensation, job postings and training output | Which markets and skill requirements should we investigate? |
| SmartReq | Supply, wage and demand evidence for evaluating requisitions and discussing fill difficulty | What should change before we commit to this requisition? |
For example, Lightcast Recruit's documented workflow begins with a job posting and a selected region. It then exposes views of talent geography, supply, compensation and competition. That gives a recruiter a concrete starting point for discussing the assignment with a client. Explore the Lightcast Recruit workflow.
Our suggested next step is to bring an actual requisition to that discussion. Ask which geography, skill filters and comparison roles would make the analysis useful. Then ask what the data cannot tell you about an individual worker's readiness or availability.
To explore those capabilities with the company, connect with Lightcast's staffing team. These tools address market intelligence. Teambridge's role in this article is the subsequent operational handoff, not an announced integration between the companies.
A realistic offer still needs a workable first shift
Here is an illustrative scenario, not a customer result.
A staffing team needs a maintenance technician at 6 a.m. A qualified applicant accepts the pay but can only start at 8 a.m. Another can work the hours but still needs a required credential verified. A third meets both requirements, but has not confirmed the assignment.
Calling all three people “available talent” conceals three different decisions.
| What the team knows | What still needs attention | The useful next action |
|---|---|---|
| The first applicant has the skills | The start time does not fit | Discuss another assignment or a client approved schedule change |
| The second applicant can work the hours | Required evidence has not been verified | Give the verification step an owner and a deadline |
| The third applicant appears ready | The worker has not confirmed | Send the assignment details and request a response |
More applications might help with a genuine supply shortage. They do not, by themselves, resolve these three issues. The team needs to identify which constraint it is dealing with before deciding what to do next.
That is where the market perspective connects with the operating perspective.
Teambridge perspective
From a realistic offer to a completed first shift
- 01Assess the market
Use relevant evidence to discuss skills, pay and recruiting geography.
- 02Check the assignment
Review readiness, qualifications and availability for the actual shift.
- 03Confirm and follow through
Get the worker's response and verify whether the first shift was completed.
Teambridge's matching workflow lets an operator review suggested workers and take assignment or messaging actions from that context. It supports the operational part of the handoff; it does not create a missing labor supply or guarantee that a worker will attend. Matching also depends on the rules and information configured by the team. See the documented matching workflow.
Bring a better question to Staffing World
Before Denver, choose one recent group of applicants for comparable roles. Track offers accepted, workers ready, assignments confirmed and first shifts completed. Keep the same applicant group and observation window throughout, and record why people stop progressing. Distinguish a declined offer from an incomplete credential or a start date that has not arrived yet.
The objective is not to produce an impressive percentage. It is to separate a market constraint from a process that your team can improve.
For Hetrick's conference discussion, our question is: which local signals best distinguish a shortage of qualified workers from an offer that needs to change?
For Lightcast's product team, it is: how would you use Recruit, Staffing Analyst or SmartReq to challenge the assumptions in one of our hardest requisitions?
For staffing operators, it is: after someone accepts, what most often prevents the first completed shift?
Teambridge is heading to Staffing World to compare notes on that connection. We would welcome a conversation about where your handoff works, where it stalls and what evidence would help you make the next decision. Connect with Teambridge.
Sources and editorial notes
- American Staffing Association: Staffing World 2026. Event information for October 12 to 14 in Denver.
- ASA: Ron Hetrick's speaker profile. Scheduled appearance, session and time. Checked September 22, 2026.
- Lightcast: skilled trades research announcement. Published August 25, 2026. Source of the three headline estimates.
- Lightcast: Defining the Skilled Trades. Public research overview, occupation framework, report artwork and Hetrick quotation.
- Lightcast: staffing and recruiting. Source for the description of its staffing research offering.
- Teambridge: assign or message a suggested match. Product documentation and matching visual.
- Lightcast: expert directory. Hetrick's current company title and listed areas of expertise. Walsh's role and contribution are attributed to the research overview above.
- Lightcast Recruit, Staffing Analyst and SmartReq. Official descriptions of the offerings, checked September 22, 2026.
This article is Teambridge's independent perspective ahead of Staffing World. It does not announce a partnership, integration or endorsement by Lightcast or ASA. Research discussion is based on Lightcast's public overview and announcement, not access to the gated full report. The staffing scenario is illustrative. Conference listings should be checked again before travel.
About the author
Content Writer at Teambridge
Anis Nanai is a content writer at Teambridge, with a focus on workforce management and the realities of running hourly teams. He prioritizes conversations with customers, staying close to the market, and understanding how workforce needs are changing. His writing connects those concerns to practical decisions about scheduling, time tracking, staffing, and automation. He examines product developments through the questions that matter to operators: what does this solve, how would it work for my team, and what evidence supports it?
Company perspective: this author works at Teambridge. Customer outcomes are attributed to their published sources.
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