The Good Temp

Notes

Chapter 1. The Temporary Advantage 1. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) measures the size of the contingent workforce as being from 2 to 4 percent of the entire workforce. The BLS differentiates between contingent workers (“persons who do not expect their jobs to last or who reported that their jobs are temporary”) and workers in alternative arrangements (independent contractors, on-call workers, temporary agency workers, and workers provided by contract companies—with independent contractors being the largest and workers from contract companies the smallest), stating that the two groups overlap to some degree but that a contingent job is not necessarily an alternative arrangement (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2005a, 1). This distinction makes it somewhat confusing to provide a definitive estimate for the size of the temporary workforce. Nevertheless, the BLS figures give a working sense of its parameters. 2. We don’t address nor do we have data about small, precarious, “flyby -night” temporary placement agencies that come and go, may violate labor law, or fail to pay wages for work performed (Stone 2006, 259). 3. In 2005, temporary help service agencies (our subject) employed approximately 71 percent of the workers in the employment services industry sector, which also comprises professional employer organizations (accounting for 21 percent of employment services) and employment NOTES 192 agencies (8 percent) (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2005b; Dey, Houseman, and Polivka 2007, 4). The number of temporary help service offices surged from about 600 in the early 1960s to 5,000 by 1981 and nearly 40,000 today. THS industry revenue has likewise exploded over the years, its annual earnings expanding from about $250 million in the early 1960s to $72.3 billion in 2006. Growth in industry earnings was paralleled by growth in the size of the temporary workforce, which was a little over 12 million in 2006 (American Staffing Association 2006a; Fiamingo 1984; Mangum, Mayall, and Nelson 1985; Moore 1965). 4. Virtually all studies have found that, on average, temporary agency workers earn lower wages than do permanent workers, even when they perform the same work. Temporary jobs offer few (if any) benefits and very limited (if any) opportunities for upward mobility. 5. The Bureau of Labor Statistics did not track the size, ratio, or composition of the temporary workforce in the mid–twentieth century, so precise numbers and demographic information for that period are educated guesses. The BLS Current Employment Statistics program has total employment data for temporary help services from 1990 onward. Data on contingent and alternative employment arrangements have been collected periodically in supplements to the Current Population Survey since February 1995 (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2005a; Watson 2007). 6. See Acker 1990; Hochschild 1971; and Kanter 1977. 7. Marriage bars—prohibitions originating from the early 1900s against the employment of married women—kept significant numbers of women out of the labor force and career tracks. Employers both refused to hire married women and sometimes fired single women employees who later married. This marriage bar most likely contributed to making temporary work in the post–World War II era a female-dominated sector and preserved the world of permanent jobs and careers as the domain of male workers. Goldin (1990) argues that employers might retain women whom they valued who had started as single but then married; however, they usually retained them as temporary workers only. Between the relegation of some married women to temp status as a result of the marriage bar, and the exclusion of other married women from permanent jobs, temporary employment became a reliable job enclave for this population . By 1940 the most extensive controls excluding married women from permanent jobs were found in firms that were likely to have welldeveloped internal labor markets and career ladders where good jobs would have been found: insurance offices, banks, public utilities, and the offices in manufacturing firms and in larger firms in general (Goldin 1990, chap. 6, table 6.2). Notes to Pages 5–6 193 8. Women and men are close to equals in temporary agency employment, but this is a case of dubious equality given that jobs in this category are neither well-paid nor secure. Breaking down contingent work into detailed categories reveals a pattern of underlying gender segregation and inequality. Men constitute a much higher percentage of self-employed, independent contractors (66.5 percent) than women do (33.5 percent)— important because contractors tend to earn higher wages (Mishel, Bernstein, and Allegretto 2007, 242, table 4.9). Interestingly, the timing of increases...