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by Thang Trinh, xthangtrinh@gmail.com

Temporary Workers Taking

Bigger Role in US Workforce

A crowd of job seekers attends a health care job fair in New York, March 14, 2013.

Temp Workers Taking Bigger Role in U.S. Workforce

Employers are more and more hiring temporary workers, or workers who do
not have the same status as permanent, full-time workers.

This practice has been called freelance nation, outsourcing, or the rise of
solopreneurs. Solopreneur combines the words solo and entrepreneur to
mean individual entrepreneurs.

These workers are usually paid by the hour. Some are paid one fee for the
project, or contract. For some workers, freelance or contract work offers them
more flexibility. They can hold more than one freelance or

contract position. They are not bound to the same rules or expectations as a
full-time staff position. For other workers, freelance or contract work may be
all that is available. In some areas and sectors, the market of

freelance positions has grown, while the market of full-time staff positions has
shrunk.

But freelance work may not include benefits such as health insurance, paid
vacations, or retirement plans. These are benefits that were typically offered
to full-time, permanent employees before the Great Recession of 2007-2009
led to fewer jobs.

The Great Recession resulted in massive job loss of 8.4 million U.S. jobs, or
6.1 percent of all payroll employment, said the Economic Policy Institute. It
was the most severe job loss since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

After World War II, many employers hired women as temporary workers in
clerical jobs. Women filled in for permanent employees who were ill or away
on vacation.

But since the Great Recession, use of temporary employees has increased.
More employers are hiring temporary workers on a permanent basis and
calling them independent contractors. And they are using them for a variety of

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professional positions.

These positions include information technology, marketing, advertising,

payroll and human resources, noted Rick Dacri, a human resource
consultant.

During the recession, companies fired or laid off employees to offset losses
they experienced. As profits declined, they sought to cut expenses.
Employees and benefits are the largest portion of a companys expenses.
Paying employees benefits like health insurance and pensions create
additional costs.

Employers also use independent contractors because they often have the
latest skills in technology and other fields. With temporary workers, they can
easily increase or decrease the size of their workforce in response to
changing market conditions.

Size of gig economy is in dispute

There is disagreement about the size of the gig economy. It depends on how
it is measured.

The Economic Policy Institute is a think-tank in Washington, D.C. In 2015, the

institute said that about 27 million workers about 1-in-6 U.S. workers are
unemployed or underemployed.

Once workers get laid off from a job in this labor market, the odds are
stacked strongly against them finding another one anytime soon, reported the
study.

Some sectors are hiring more contract positions and hiring fewer full-time
staff. At American universities, more adjunct professors are hired by contract
and fewer full-time professors are offered tenure, or job security agreements.
These positions often last one to three years and do not become permanent,
said the American Association of University Professors.

The U.S. Department of Labor said benefits for permanent employees are
worth 30 percent above an employees salary. For example, if an employee
receives $50,000 a year in salary, it can cost the employer $15,000 in
benefits. So that means the total value of the compensation package for the
employee is $65,000.

The Great Recessions impact on the labor market

Since the recession ended in 2009, the U.S. economy has not created jobs
needed to match population growth and to return workers to the labor force,
said the Economic Policy Institute.

More low-wage jobs than high-wage jobs have been created during the past
four years. High-wage industries lost 1 million positions, while low-wage jobs
increased by 1.8 million in that time period, reported the National Employment
Law Project (NELP).

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Charlie Jeszeck is director of Education, Workforce and Income Security

Issues at the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO). He and his colleagues
wrote studies on the contingent workforce.

We dont know the size of the gig economy, he said. There arent good data
on this issue. Also, analysts disagree about who should be included in the
concept of the contingent workforce.

Summary of the news

The Great Recession of 2007-2009 in the US resulted in a massive job loss.

This led employers to hire more and more temporary workers. By contrast, the
market of full-time staff positions has shrunk. Temporary workers are usually
paid by hour or project, which offers them more flexibility in that they can hold
more than one freelance position. Also, they are not bound to rules and
expectations as full-time staff. However, temporary workers are not given
benefits such as health insurance, paid vacations, or retirement plans.
Employees and benefits are the largest portion of a companys expenses.
Another reason for hiring temporary workers is that they have the latest skills
in technology and other fields. Common freelance positions include IT,
marketing, advertising, payroll, and human resources. The size of the
contingent workforce is unknown because there are not good data and
analysts disagree about who should be included in this concept.

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