CUED

Contingent Work and the Staffing Industry:
A Review of Worker-Centered Policy and Practice

October 1999
Nikolas Theodore, Center for Urban Economic Development, UIC; and Chirag Mehta, Center for Urban Economic Development, UIC
PDF paper (190KB)

Executive Summary

This report presents an overview of the major issues facing contingent workers, recent developments in the staffing industry, an analysis of the current policy landscape, and a review of worker-centered policy advocacy and practice. Section I presents a summary and analysis of data on the contingent workforce. In this section, analyses of employer and worker surveys are reviewed and data on the temporary help industry are presented. Section II examines the growth strategies of various segments of the staffing industry. In this section, trends in industry restructuring are presented along with an examination of the growth strategies being pursued by leaders in the temporary help industry. Section III analyzes the adequacy of current public policies as well as current policy proposals that are being debated in Congress and at the state level. Contingent workers, and the staffing agencies and business clients that employ these workers, are subject to a complex array of public policies that in many ways are growing increasingly out of date and ineffective in meeting the needs of workers. This section provides a broad overview of these policies and suggests policy gaps in existing laws governing contingent work relationships. Section IV presents a review of worker-centered employment policies and alternative practice. A growing number of unions, community organizations, and policy advocates are devising strategies to address issues faced by contingent workers. This section reviews current efforts, with a particular emphasis on efforts that have received little national attention.

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