Sector Glance: Staffing Companies Slip

Bernanke predicted the economy will grow at a "sluggish" pace before recovering later in 2008, which weighed on the overall markets. Bernanke also reiterated that turmoil in the housing and credit markets have hurt consumer spending and curbed hiring.

Meanwhile, the Labor Department said the number of workers filing unemployment claims fell by 9,000 to 348,000 last week.

Earlier this month, the Labor Department said employers cut 17,000 jobs in January, the first reduction in payrolls in more than four years. Also at that time, the government said the unemployment rate actually dipped slightly to 4.9 percent last month from 5 percent in December.

Separately, JPMorgan Securities analyst Tien-tsin Huang lowered profit estimates on BearingPoint Inc., based on the company's recent guidance and "the latest iteration of its turnaround plan." Huang said the "guidance seems optimistic and the strategy sounds familiar although now with a stronger operational focus/team, but the environment seems worse."

Here's how some staffing stocks performed in Thursday's session:

BearingPoint fell 15 cents, or 7.2 percent, to $1.94.

Administaff Inc. lost $1.05, or 4.1 percent, to $24.73.

Manpower Inc. declined 74 cents to $54.68.

Robert Half International Inc. shed 23 cents to $26.25.