With so many people looking for work in the Quad Cities, staffing agencies can barely keep up.

Temp agencies are swamped with people looking for a job, and with more qualified people stopping in, the competition for openings is stiff.

Charity Stone with Team Staffing Solutions in Davenport is taking as many as 100 calls a day from hungry job-hunters. "They want something so badly that they're willing to call everyday hoping that when we get an opportunity for them that we'll think of them first."

The agency helps people find temporary or temp-to-hire positions in mostly the clerical, industrial and manufacturing sectors. These days Stone is seeing a lot of highly-skilled people applying for those jobs, "Supervisors, engineers, sales professionals that have been out of work.  Now they're calling back saying, 'I'll do anything, I'll take part-time, I'll take something I know is only going to last a couple of days a week,' just because they need a check."

She says that influx of professionals into the marketplace is raising the bar for companies, "Employers are more selective now; what they would accept before they don't have to accept any longer."

The same is true for job seekers. "Some of the people that might have been qualified before find themselves in a different position being much more under qualified than what they would have been previously."

Stone says when the economy turns around it will be a different story. Those highly-skilled workers will leave temp positions, opening up a whole new set of opportunities. 

That's why Stone says you should keep your resume fresh, and if you do turn to a temp agency, show up ready to be interviewed. "Come in ready for work. Come in like you are applying for the best job out there because you don't know what we have available."

Stone says in this economy, more companies are choosing to hire people on a short-term basis rather than commit to putting them on the payroll.

She says hiring tends to taper off at the end of the year, and pick back up in January.