NEW YORK — A trend by temporary employment agencies to provide benefits to the workers they place with companies is growing because many of the most desirable temps were laid off from companies where they received full-time benefits.

For job seekers with office, computer and administrative skills that are in high demand, it pays to shop around for the best benefits from temp agencies, an informal poll of agencies suggests.

"We're starting to have a recruiting problem, finding employees with office technology skills our clients require," says Bruce Steinberg, spokesman for the National Assn. of Temporary Services of Alexandria, Va.

To sweeten the pot and lure the best workers to a particular agency, benefits are often the incentive.

Though many temp outfits offer medical insurance, the amount they pay in can fluctuate greatly. Differences also pop up with respect to vacation pay, 401(k) retirement savings plans and bonuses.

Companies using the services of the $30-billion temporary industry, he adds, favor temp workers with benefits because "they don't want the temporaries to feel like second-class citizens" when working alongside employees who are covered.

"A number of our client employers request that we offer the same paid holidays to our temporaries as they provide to their permanent employees," says Robert Funk, president and chairman of Express Personnel Services, an Oklahoma City-based firm with 200 franchised agencies hiring 150,000 temps.

Pressure also is coming from the temps themselves, adds Kitty Sorell of New York City, a consultant to temp agencies.

"The old saw was that temps don't ask for benefits. But so many people have been laid off, they are looking (for them) now," Sorell says.

Given the high unemployment levels in Southern California, the trend toward offering insurance and other benefits still has room to grow.

Gene Wilson, president of Thomas Temporaries, said his agency gives temporary workers the option of purchasing low-cost health insurance. But he said luring workers for his Irvine-based company has not been difficult.

"I think the employment climate in California is still very different than the rest of the country. Our market is still very soft," Wilson said. "To say across the board that recruiting is a problem is difficult to say. I have to say that I don't believe that benefits are the most important thing in recruiting. There are many other factors."