SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 12, 1998-- This June, the Swiss-based global employment services leader, Adecco, announced plans for the national roll-out of Job Shop, a first-of-of-its-kind interactive job search kiosk to be placed in malls and universities across 33 states. Today Job Shop will arrive in Washington when the first of four sites in the Seattle area will be unveiled at the Northgate Mall here in Seattle.

The official welcome of Job Shop to Washington State will be made today at 11:00AM at the site of the Northgate Mall Job Shop itself and will be attended by Adecco executives, local business and community leaders, members of the media, associates and mall shoppers at large. The colorful kiosk is designed to attract a steady flow of interested people and job seekers who follow the simple interactive touch-screen guide to submit their qualifications toward new job opportunities. Over the next year, other Job Shop Kiosks like the one at Northgate will soon be operating in the Tacoma Mall, Supermall of the Great Northwest in Auburn and the Washington Expo Center in Seattle.

``This is a great opportunity for Adecco and for people and businesses in Washington,'' said Catherine King, Adecco's Regional Vice President for the Oregon/Washington Region. ``Job Shop is a `win win' proposition. It can bring more people in touch with even greater choice in pursuing work and their careers, while widening the number of qualified candidates and the scope of staffing services Adecco provides to Washington's fast growing businesses.''

Job Shop kiosks are designed to be convenient and easy to use, simplifying the process of linking job seekers with the staffing needs of businesses. With self-guiding instructions, Job Shop prompts users to specify the nature of work desired, their schedule and availability, their education, experience, salary requirements, skills and other data - in a process that takes only a few minutes. All the information entered is linked immediately to Adecco's central database, where it is processed by proprietary software programs that screen and match the applicant's interests and skills to specific jobs from among thousands of temporary and full-time positions. A positive match activates trained Adecco professionals who set up an appointment with the candidate to complete the final steps of the screening, testing and placement process.

In addition to Seattle, Adecco's national Job Shop initiative now includes select sites in California, Ohio and New Jersey, and follows the successful operation of Job Shop at some 80 locations in Europe. As Job Shop reaches greater US distribution, it is expected to significantly speed up and increase efficiencies in Adecco's recruiting efforts at a time when the challenges of matching staff to the needs of U.S. businesses grow more complex.

Said Debbie Pond-Heide, President of Adecco North America, ``Last year Adecco supplied over 65,000 US businesses with qualified personnel, and with record low unemployment, the demand for skilled workers continues to rise. Job Shop, in concert with our web site recruiting programs and proprietary screening and testing systems, is part of Adecco's strategic use of technology and innovation that helps us serve job candidates and our corporate clients even better. In effect, we're developing technological bridges that connect people to jobs with amazing speed and convenience.''

Adecco SA is the global leader in employment services, connecting people to jobs and jobs to people through its network of 3,000 offices in 48 countries around the world. A Swiss company, Adecco is managed by a multinational team that directs the delivery of an unparalleled range of flexible staffing and career resources to leading corporate clients and qualified associates.

Adecco provides business clients with temporary and full-time clerical, technical and light industrial associates while Adecco's branded subsidiaries address specialized staffing requirements: Accountants on Call for clerical accounting assistance; Ajilon for high-end information technology consulting and staffing solutions; TAD Telecommunications for personnel with telecommunications expertise; and Lee Hecht Harrison for outplacement and career management services. Clients retain these and other Adecco services through local, national and international contracts.

The company was formed in August 1996 by the merger of Adia SA of Switzerland and Ecco SA of France. In 1997, the company's revenues grew 34 percent to 11.432 billion Swiss francs (approximately US $8 billion).

Adecco SA is listed on The Swiss Exchange (ADECCO I (ADE - 136973); ADECCO PS (ADEP - 136963)), the Bourse de Paris (RM 12819) and NASDAQ (ADECY).

     Adecco
     Bonnie Olmsted, 650/610-1176