Would be appealing if there was some sort of basic income in place which
gave flexworkers the strength/courage/dignity to be flexworkers. Some sort
of income support which could allow them to come in and out of the paid
formal workforce.
Arthur Cordell
-----Original Message-----
From: Gail Stewart [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: February 1, 2001 5:39 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Temp market for labour
A question that came to mind:
If temp agencies had a different name - something like
flexwork agencies for instance - might we understand them
differently?
Might we see them as facilitating self-directed
self-employment and thus a welcome wave of the future,
allowing people to enter the paid labour market only as
needed and to organize their lives around active leisure
rather than around paid work?
Gail
Gail Stewart
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, February 01, 2001 1:53 PM
Subject: Temp market for labour
> Dynamic pricing comes to the labour markets. A review of
the temp market on
> employment, especially wages. From the Wall Street
Journal.
>
>
> THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2001 (A1)
> Temp Workers Have Lasting Effect ---- By David
> Wessel
>
> The Wall Street Journal
>
> ON ANY GIVEN DAY, more Americans owe their jobs to
temporary-help outfits
> than are
> working in auto and aircraft factories. About 10% of the
job growth in the
> 1990s was in temp
> agencies, twice as much as in the 1980s. Manpower Inc.
boasts of being
> America's largest
> employer.
>
> Is this a temporary feature of an economy in which workers
have been scarce,
> one that will
> vanish along with Alan Greenspan's halo if the U.S. is
sliding into
> recession? Or has it become
> a permanent feature, a key to the pleasurable mix of low
unemployment and
> low inflation?
> Clearly, it's good for employers. But is it good for
workers?
>
> Temp agencies grew rapidly after state courts in the late
1970s and 1980s
> limited employers'
> ability to fire permanent workers. Temps were easier to
fire than permanent
> workers, so
> employers hired more of them. Perversely, efforts "to
protect workers
> against unjust dismissal
> have fostered the growth of . . . jobs that offer less job
security and
> lower pay," says David
> Autor, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist.
>
> Then many employers got hooked on temp agencies.
Temp-agency payrolls zoomed
> in the 1990s
> as the slogan of shopkeepers became "help wanted." By
1996, according to one
> national survey,
> half of all employers and three-quarters of all
manufacturers were using
> temp firms. Today,
> more than 3.3 million workers are on temp-firm placements,
mostly in
> clerical or
> light-manufacturing jobs.
>
> The temp boom is a huge change in the way the economy
works. It's one reason
> the U.S. has
> pushed down the unemployment rate without pushing up the
inflation rate.
> Economists Lawrence
> Katz and Alan Krueger estimate that the jobless rate
consistent with stable
> inflation might be
> four-tenths of a percentage point higher if not for the
expansion of the
> temp agencies. Without
> temps, the Federal Reserve might have put on the brakes
sooner -- before the
> last 500,000
> workers were hired.
>
> That sounds good, especially for those half-million
workers. But how do temp
> agencies
> accomplish this? One way is unambiguously good: They make
it easier for
> employers with
> openings and unemployed workers to find each other. The
other is mixed: They
> allow employers
> to avoid raising wages.
>
> AGENCIES HELP SOME workers get jobs they wouldn't get
otherwise, often
> screening and
> auditioning workers to save employers' effort. In some
states, more than 20%
> of the people
> leaving welfare for work spend time in a temp-agency
placement; some
> wouldn't get jobs unless
> a temp agency vouched for them. While it lasted, the tight
labor market
> helped. "Employers
> were so open-minded, we could place anyone who wanted to
work. Employers had
> the mirror
> test: Do they breathe?" says Debbie Barnowsky, manager of
Snelling &
> Snelling Inc.'s Auburn
> Hills, Mich., office. "But that's not true anymore."
>
> Temp agencies also offer a quick, free way to brush up on
computer skills.
> In a survey of 439
> temp offices, Mr. Autor found that 30% of clerical hires
get training,
> usually seven hours of
> computer lessons. The firms aren't altruistic. Training
allows them to
> charge employers higher
> fees and to attract both workers and employers.
>
> But that's not the whole story. Employers use temp
agencies to lure sorely
> needed workers
> without raising wages for existing workers. They tinker
with wages in much
> the same way
> airlines tinker with ticket prices to fill planes, says
Susan Houseman, an
> economist at the
> Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, in Kalamazoo,
Mich.
>
> Hospitals use temp-agency nurses because they say they
can't fill vacancies
> otherwise. They
> mean they can't fill vacancies at the wages they're
paying.
>
> "One reason temp agencies are able to get nurses and we're
not is that they
> are paying them
> outrageous dollars that we won't pay," a Michigan hospital
administrator who
> uses temps, told
> Upjohn economists, without apparent irony.
>
> A BIG NORTH CAROLINA hospital hires as many permanent
nurses as it can at
> $25.76 an
> hour in wages and benefits. Then it fills vacancies by
paying $40 for temps,
> of which the nurses
> get between $28 and $32 an hour with few fringe benefits.
The winners: folks
> who pay hospital
> bills. The losers: the $26-an-hour nurses who might
otherwise make more
> money if the nursing
> shortage forced hospitals to bid up wages across the
board.
>
> In factories, the dynamics are different. A Midwestern
auto-parts plant pays
> $15.67 an hour for
> permanent workers and $10.88 for temps, of which $7.50
goes to the workers.
> The company
> can't hire seasoned workers at the higher wage. It takes a
chance on
> unproven workers because
> they're cheap and failures can be fired easily. If not for
the temps, Ms.
> Houseman figures, the
> company would raise wages to lure good workers from other
firms. She scores
> experienced
> workers as losers. But some temps are winners: After
successful tryouts,
> they get permanent
> jobs they would never have landed otherwise.
>
> A recession will reduce the appetite for temps. "It's
pretty simple," says
> Jeffrey Joerres,
> Manpower's president. "If a company has 500 workers and
another 100 from a
> staffing firm, and
> its business starts to look soft, the 100 people from the
staffing firm are
> released first." That
> began happening in December, he says.
>
> The jobs are temporary. But the changes temp agencies are
making to labor
> markets are likely to
> last.
>
> ---
>
