Welcome to the first issue of the RFriends Recorder for 2011! The RFriends Recorder is a quarterly publication for everyone associated with Rose Making IT Happen for our customers. If you are reading this – Thank You for helping us add value to American businesses and government agencies.
2011 is off to a decent start, as it appears there is some resiliency in the overall economy (knock on wood please). While our total revenue for 2010 came in at $230 million, we are already running at over $300 million for 2011. We remain profitable, but margin pressure continues to be a top concern for Rose, as well as most of our customers. We remain busy, looking for ways to cut operating costs and lead our industry in providing value. So far so good, as the marketplace has been rewarding us nicely.
Did you know that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is showing that YOU ARE IN THE LEADING EDGE OF EMPLOYMENT TRENDS? While our unemployment rate continues to hover around 9 percent depending on how you add it up, staffing jobs have expanded by 495,000 since September 2009. In fact, temporary staffing is a growing industry and trend. For the last couple years, staffing has grown as a percentage of the overall employment number from 1.3 percent of the total to 1.7 percent. That is a growth rate of nearly 31 percent over two years! We believe based on historical macro-economic tendencies, global competition for all our customers, the rate of technology change, and other reasons that temporary staffing could penetrate the total employment population by perhaps 5 percent over the next decade. Working with leading staffing providers like Rose is a great way to navigate a career with project and corporate diversity, while maximizing your financial opportunity as well!
We are grateful and honored for this continued growth. Not only are the macro trends helping, but we benefit from the trust that our customers and you place in Rose as an employer and partner. Over the years Rose has established a strong track record of giving back to the community by supporting various disaster relief funds, local and national charities supported by our employees, and volunteering our time and financial resources to help other minority- and women-owned businesses grow to their full potential.
We also often give in support of our customers. Many of you may not know that Rose is one of the leading Solution Providers to State Government agencies. We provide IT Solution Services to Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Illinois, Texas and Iowa today. Recent contracts with Florida and discussions with many other states look promising as well. As such, when we were asked to help sponsor the American Association for State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Information Systems conference here in Missouri later in May of this year, we jumped at the chance to help. Our State Government Solution Teams have played significant roles in various state agencies across all state customers. Departments of Health, Corrections, Transportation, Social Services, Highway Patrol, and many others have all been served by the Rose Solutions group. While our commercial business is large and thriving, our State Government solutions business is growing. We are making substantial strides there for growth in the past year or so, and will continue to invest for growth there. The result will be a broader more diverse customer base that will contribute significantly to the financial health of Rose, and to the career opportunity afforded to all of us working here!
With all that said about what Rose is up to, the highest expectation that our customers have of us is that we show up for them each and every day. We’ve included some of our headquarters staff favorite health tips in this issue! Hopefully, some of them will be helpful to keeping you healthy in the months ahead!
Once again, thanks for all you do, and if you have any ideas for future issues of the RFriends Recorder, please contact us at roserecorder@roseint.com. |
