According to The Associated Press, contingent hiring is booming. Temporary workers are employed in many capacities. One-third work in manufacturing, but the contingent workforce also includes doctors, teachers and lawyers. As businesses attempt to meet demands with flexibility, they often find themselves turning to staffing agencies. Even hospitals and schools do so; temporary work is not only the province of the manufacturing and administrative fields.
Additionally, The Associated Press notes there are many contract workers. Taken together, temporary and contract workers comprise 12 percent of employed people. This is a record-setting proportion. Many hypothesize that this is part of an essential change in workplace culture, where the link between employed and employer is less permanent than it may have been in the past. A survey by Staffing Industry Analysts found 18 percent of companies with 1,000 or more employees expect their staff to be made up of contingent workers this year.
Contingent employment is a vast field, full of people who work very different jobs. What they may have in common is living the future of work.
