Volt services group.

ORANGE-based Volt remained the largest temporary placement firm operating in L.A. County in 2006, reporting $127.8 million in local revenues. That's down from $151.2 million the previous year.

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Volt says that the slowdown locally is not indicative of the company's performance as a whole. Total revenues for the firm were up 7 percent in 2006. Tom Daley, senior vice president, attributed the decline to a small number of customers who did not need to hire as many temporary workers last year. He also said that on the commercial side,some areas are weak.

"The clerical and light industrial areas are slowing," said Daley. "Business has remained relatively robust on the engineering and information technology side."

As the local job market locally has tightened, the company has turned to new sources to find qualified applicants to supplement traditional job advertisements.

"We have recruiters working on social networking sites to find passive candidates," said Daley. He defines passive candidates as people who are not out of work but may potentially want to switch jobs depending upon the opportunity available.

The company places an average of 1,700 temporary workers weekly in L.A. County that have an average hourly wage of $14.35.