12/07/09 Stockholm, Sweden – The recent Bureau of Labor Statistics unemployment report showed fewer than expected job losses. However, a key driver of the lower number were 52,000 new temporary workers, the most in five years. The BLS statistics also showed that the US may be transitioning into a workforce where every one in four workers holds a temporary position.
According to USA Today:
“Gary Mathiason, vice chairman of Littler, the No. 1 employment law firm, predicts half the jobs created in the recovery will be filled by contractors, consultants and other temps.
“Fifteen years ago, most temporary slots were for office work, but more than half are now filled by professionals such as engineers and physicians, Asin says. Business Talent Group, which places executives, saw its second-quarter business rise 70%.”
The article indicates that temporary jobs are not only replacing regular work, but they are also becoming more commonplace in higher-level positions. More details are available from USA Today in its coverage of how a quarter of the workforce could become temps as contract work grows.
Rocky Vega
Rocky Vega is publisher of The Daily Reckoning. Previously, he was founding publisher of UrbanTurf and RFID Update, which he operated from Brazil, Chile, and Puerto Rico, and associate publisher of FierceFinance. He specialized in direct marketing at MBI, facilitated MIT Sloan School of Management programs, and has been featured on CBS. Vega graduated with honors from Harvard University, where he was on the board of Let’s Go Publications and directed business programs involving McKinsey, Goldman Sachs, and Harvard Business School faculty. He is also enrolled at the Stockholm School of Economics.
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as always the most interesting aspect of new job creation is its quality….sounds like the temp jobs may be higher paying than before but the volume seems minimal….indeed the economy is still shedding jobs….throw out the bogus made-for-liars birth death model and there is no possibility of net job creation within the next 6 months.
Actually everybody seems to be moving to contract workers. You get a 6 month to 2 year contract. The pay is higher then if you are permanent but you have to look for a new gig at the end of the contract. Of course being laid off is just as likely.