Temp Jobs Trend Higher

Temporary workers now account for more than a quarter of the jobs added since the Great Recession technically ended, and some experts predict those types of jobs will continue indefinitely as employers seek ways to trim labor-related costs.

The trend is for companies to count more on the services of temporary workers and less on full-time employees, who already may be overworked because of layoffs and buyouts.

This is great news for companies pressing for increased productivity and reduced costs, but it does not bode well for the underemployed and unemployed seeking full-time work.

More than 15 million people remain jobless, with the unemployment rate at 9.8 percent in November. For many, even a temp job is better than no job at all.

Temp workers typically receive few or no benefits – health care, holiday pay, sick time. Essentially, temps work for cash on a per-diem basis, with no job security. Every day could be their last at work.

The New York Times notes that “it is harder for them (temps) to save. And it is much more difficult for them to develop a career arc while hopping from boss to boss.”

There are several factors driving the trend toward temps, including the way work is handled in America’s post-recession era.

“Businesses now tend to organize around short- to medium-term projects that can be doled out to temporary or contract workers,” the Times reports.

And flexibility is another factor: it’s much easier to end a bunch of temp contracts than to actually go through layoffs, according to mediabistro.com.

“We’re in a period where uncertainty seems to be going on forever,” David Autor, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, tells the Times.

“So this period of temporary employment seems to be going on forever.”

View From Inside

Having been a temporary worker more than once in my professional career, I can say it offers more advantages than disadvantages to employers and the temp. It can be an “audition” for both parties.

From the employer side, there is little red tape in terms of temp hiring and termination. The application, background check and interview process typically are the same as for a regular, full-time employee.

In a temp arrangement, an employer tries the worker on for size, to see if he or she fits the position and company culture while performing the same job as regular staff.

It’s not easy, even after an exhaustive resume review and rigorous interview process, to be certain someone is right beforehand for any job.

On the flip side, the temp can do the same thing in terms of sizing up the company and whether a full-time, regular staff position – assuming it’s available and offered later – would provide financial stability and flexibility for professional and personal growth.

A survey by Staffing Industry Analysts, a Mountain View, Calif., research firm, shows 68 percent of all temporary workers are seeking permanent employment, the Times reports.

Temp Worker Advances

My previous career as professional journalist in daily newspapers began this way:

A college internship led to a temporary reporter’s job that led to full-time employment in the career of my choice. Certainly, not all temp work ends in such a positive outcome, but the potential does exist.

The key for me turning the temp journalism job into a regular one was performing at the highest level; that is showing mastery of basic skills, willingness to learn new ones, and developing interest regardless of the assignment.

If you’re not curious about the why and how of things, chances are you won’t make a very good journalist. You have to combine reporting (gathering facts) and writing (context packaging) to get the job done right, regardless of print or electronic format.

Change Direction Now

My point is the use of temporary workers – to fill gaps and cut costs – should not be considered a long-term substitute for hiring full-time employees who, admittedly, do bring higher costs, especially in the health and retirement benefits.

Whether you’re an employer or employee, temporary staffing is a practical solution for the here and now.

But it offers no lasting commitment to the future, whether that’s building a business, improving-maintaining services, or developing a career path.

Temporary workers should be just that, temporary. There's too much at stake for all sides of this equation to let this trend become permanent.

As for me, I practice what I preach at writenowworks.com. If you like this post, please share it.

Faint Life Signs: Temp Work Rising

If you work in construction or the information industry be grateful you still have a job, according to recently released data by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But if you’re looking for jobs across many fields, a growing trend seems to be building in your favor: temp work.

Construction employment fell by 64,000 in February, about in line with the average monthly job loss over the prior six months. Since December 2007, employment in construction has fallen by 1.9 million. Sales of new homes have dipped in recent weeks, according to media reports.

Employment in the information industry dropped by 18,000 in February. Since December 2007, job losses in information have totaled 297,000. Many of the job losses in this sector have come from the print industry, where layoffs recently leveled off.

Employment in manufacturing was essentially unchanged in February; retail trade was also unchanged in February, after a sizable increase in January. Media reports say the demand for durable goods – washers, dryers, ranges and other “big ticket” items – has seen a significant rise in recent weeks.


In February, temporary help services added 48,000 jobs. Since reaching a low point in September 2009, temporary help services has risen by 284,000. What seems to be a trend is companies hiring temp workers who may earn full-time status if demand increases and/or existing staffers leave.

Specifically, temp jobs are available in public and private sectors at nearly full-time hours but with reduced or no benefits. This approach offers a “foot-in-the-door” for the unemployed or career changers; it provides employers with a means to fill work gaps and review the available pool of job candidates. It's a win-win for workers and employers.

For now, the healthiest job growth areas of the U.S. economy continue to be in government, health care and education – the strongest areas since the Great Recession began in December 2007.

But there are some dark clouds on the education front, especially in New Jersey, where public school districts may be forced to lay off thousands because of drastic cuts in state aid proposed by Gov. Chris Christie. The Garden State, which has the highest tax rate in America, is heavily in debt and unable to meet financial obligations in many areas, including pension funding for state employees.

In February, the U.S. number of unemployed persons, at 14.9 million, was essentially unchanged, and the unemployment rate remained at 9.7 percent. The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) was 6.1 million in February and has been about that level since December. About four in 10 unemployed persons have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more.

State-by-state unemployment largely deepened last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Virginia dropped 32,000 jobs in February alone, California lost 20,000, and Michigan and Pennsylvania each shed 16,000 jobs.

The ranks of the long-term unemployed, especially those in the information industry, will likely swell in Hawaii, according to a report by Rachel Kaufman at MediaJobsDaily.

In a filing with Hawaii's Department of Labor, the owner of The Honolulu Star-Bulletin said the newspaper will be laying off half of its 300 employees as it pursues its takeover of the Honolulu Advertiser, the Advertiser reports. Oahu Publications said it would cut those 150 jobs whether or not the Bulletin is sold or merged with the Advertiser. Oahu Publications, owner of the Bulletin, is buying rival Honolulu Advertiser from Gannett Co., Inc., owner of newspapers, television stations and Web sites. Gannett has sent layoff notices to all 600 Advertiser employees, but it's unclear how many of those employees would be rehired when the sale completes.

Hawaii, President Obama’s onetime home, is far from a paradise of jobs. So these laid-off newspaper employees might have to relocate to mainland America to look for hard-to-find work, especially if they’re journalists.

The newspaper industry, because of the recession and the Internet, is undergoing dramatic changes. 2009 was the worst year the newspaper business has seen in decades, according to figures released by the Newspaper Association of America.
Print advertising revenue fell 27.2 percent, or more than $10 billion, from 2008 – which was, at the time, the industry’s worst year since the Depression in the 1930s, writes Richard Perez-Pena, blogging for The New York Time's Media Decoder.

From its peak in 2005, newspaper ad revenue dropped 44.2 percent, from more than $49.4 billion to less than $27.6 billion last year. The last time advertisers spent less on newspapers was in 1986.

What does all this mean?

We’ve got a long way to go before the U.S. economy shows more than faint signs of a pulse after nearly 27 months of recession that has left many of us shaken and stirred.

As for me, I practice what I preach at writenowworks.com.