Monthly Labor Review November 1998 3

Workers in Alternative Employment

I

n February 1997, information on workers in

four alternative employment arrangements

was obtained from the Current Population

Survey (CPS). This marked the second time such

information was collected through the CPS; the

first was 2 years earlier. In general, the proportion of total employment accounted for by each

arrangement, as well as the characteristics of the

workers, was little changed since the previous

survey in February 1995.1

The second survey confirmed that the characteristics of workers differed significantly between

the arrangements as well as within them. People

employed in two of these arrangements, temporary

help agency workers and contract company workers, are employees of one company and carry out

assignments for another. Workers who are on call

do not have an established schedule for reporting

to work. And workers in the largest group, independent contractors, are not employees in the traditional sense, but rather work for themselves.

About 12.6 million people, or 1 in 10 workers,

were classified into one of these four alternative

employment arrangements in February 1997, the

same proportion as in the February 1995 survey.

The proportions accounted for by each arrangement are shown in exhibit 1 and table 1. By far

the largest arrangement was independent contractors, with 8.5 million, followed by on-call workers (2 million), temporary help agency workers

(1.3 million), and contract company employees

(800,000). The number of workers in all of these

arrangements combined increased by 3 percent

(400,000 people) over the 2-year period, about

Workers in alternative employment

arrangements: a second look

Both the proportion and characteristics of workers

in four alternative employment arrangements

in February 1997 were little different from 2 years

earlier; the groups continue to be highly diverse

Sharon R. Cohany

Sharon R. Cohany is an

economist in the Office

of Employment and

Unemployment

Statistics, Bureau of

Labor Statistics.

the same rate of growth as employment overall.

The rest of this article covers the demographic

and job characteristics, earnings, and benefits of

workers in each of the alternative arrangements in

turn. Comparisons often are made with workers in

traditional arrangements, defined here as those who

do not fall into any of the alternative-arrangement categories. A companion article in this

issue by Steven Hipple gives detailed explanations of the four categories (see appendix,

pages 34–35) and presents a profile of contingent workers from the same CPS supplement.

It should be noted that the classification of

workers in alternative arrangements was made

independently of their contingent status—that is,

whether their job was temporary. Workers in

alternative arrangements could be contingent as

well, but were not automatically so. In fact, most

workers in alternative arrangements had permanent jobs and hence were not contingent.

Likewise, most contingent workers had regularly scheduled jobs for which they were hired

directly and thus were not in an alternative

arrangement.

While some researchers have considered parttime work to be an alternative arrangement, the

classification of workers in alternative arrangements in this study was made irrespective of

their part-time status. Part-time work is defined

in the CPS solely on the basis of a person’s usual

weekly hours (less than 35 at all jobs combined).

Part-time workers were classified in an alternative arrangement only if they met the criteria for

that arrangement. Most part-time workers did
4 Monthly Labor Review November 1998

Workers in Alternative Employment

not, in fact, fall into an alternative arrangement, and, conversely, a majority of workers in alternative arrangements

worked full time.

Independent contractors

In February 1997, 8.5 million people were identified as independent contractors, independent consultants, or freelance

workers. Referred to as independent contracting for short,

this category was by far the largest of the alternative arrangements, accounting for 6.7 percent of all workers and twothirds of workers in alternative arrangements. Both proportions were essentially unchanged between 1995 and 1997,

as were the major characteristics of the group. The rate of

growth of these workers over the 2-year period, 1.8 percent,

was somewhat slower than that of traditional workers (2.8

percent).

Independent contractors did not have to be identified as

self-employed in the basic CPS questionnaire, but, in fact, most

(88 percent) were. On the flip side, of all the self-employed,

about one-half were identified as independent contractors,

rather than other types of self-employed individuals, such as

restaurant or shop owners.2

Characteristics. Independent contractors differed from traditional workers in significant ways. For instance, two-thirds

of independent contractors were men, compared with slightly

more than one-half of traditional workers. Because running

one’s own business often requires significant human and financial capital, it is not surprising that independent contractors were older and had more schooling than the average

worker.3 Nearly 4 out of 5 independent contractors were at

least 35 years old, compared with 3 out of 5 traditional workers. Also, 34 percent of independent contractors between the

ages of 25 and 64 had a college degree, almost 5 percentage

points higher than the proportion of traditional workers. (See

tables 2 and 3.)

Other traits of independent contractors were at least partly

a reflection of their older age profile. Nearly 70 percent of

independent contractors were married, compared with 59

percent of traditional workers. About 54 percent of women in

the arrangement combined independent contracting with raising children, roughly the same percentage as that for traditional workers, although the mothers working as independent

contractors were more likely than other mothers to have

preschoolers. (See table 4.) Mothers maintaining families on

their own (with no husband present) made up a very small

part of the group.4

Part-time status. About 26 percent of independent contractors worked part time (less than 35 hours) in a typical week,

compared with 18 percent of traditional workers. (See table

5.) This difference reflects a much greater tendency for independent contractors—especially women—in the central

working ages (25 to 64) to work part time. Adult men who

worked part time as independent contractors were more likely

to prefer to work full time than were their traditional counterparts (42 and 31 percent, respectively).

The distribution of hours worked by independent contractors illustrates the diversity that can be found within a given

Workers in alternative arrangements as a percent of total employment, February 1995 and 1997

Percent of total Percent of total

employed, employed,

February 1995 February 1997

Independent contractors

Workers identified as independent contractors, independent consultants,

or freelance workers, whether they were self-employed or wage and salary

workers ........................................................................................................................ 6.7 6.7

On-call workers

Workers called to work only as needed, although they can be

 scheduled to work for several days or weeks in a row .............................................. 1.6 1.6

Temporary help agency workers

Workers paid by a temporary help agency, whether or not their

 job actually was temporary ........................................................................................ 1.0 1.0

Workers provided by contract firms

Workers employed by a company that provides them or their services

to others under contract and who are usually assigned to only one customer

and usually work at the customer’s worksite .............................................................. .5 .6

Type of alternative arrangement

Exhibit 1.
Monthly Labor Review November 1998 5

arrangement. While part-time work was relatively common,

some independent contractors worked very long hours. This

is reflected in the average workweek for full-time workers

in that arrangement, 46.3 hours, about 4 hours longer than

the workweek of traditional workers. Nearly 30 percent of

independent contractors worked 49 hours or more in a typical week, compared with only 17 percent of traditional workers. Women who worked full time as independent contractors put in almost as many hours as men.

Occupation and industry. The occupational and industry

distributions of independent contractors were also unlike

those of traditional workers, with the former group more

likely than the latter to hold managerial, sales, or precision

production jobs and less likely to work in technical, administrative support, or operator, fabricator, and laborer

positions. The most common occupations for male independent

contractors were managers, construction craftworkers,

proprietors, writers and artists, and real estate and insurance

Temporary Workers

Independent On-call help provided

contracters workers agency by contract

workers firms

Total, 16 years and older ............................ 126,742 6.7 1.6 1.0 0.6 90.1

16 to 19 years ................................................. 6,031 1.1 3.2 1.3 .3 94.1

20 to 24 years ................................................. 11,958 1.7 2.0 1.8 .6 93.9

25 to 34 years ................................................. 31,647 4.9 1.4 1.2 .9 91.6

35 to 44 years ................................................. 35,282 7.5 1.4 .8 .7 89.6

45 to 54 years ................................................. 26,146 8.6 1.1 .8 .4 89.1

55 to 64 years ................................................. 12,032 9.7 1.6 .7 .5 87.4

65 years and older .......................................... 3,646 16.3 3.5 1.0 .6 78.7

Men, 16 years and older ............................. 67,931 8.3 1.4 .9 .8 88.6

16 to 19 years ................................................. 3,068 .8 3.5 1.2 .3 94.2

20 to 24 years ................................................. 6,269 2.0 2.0 2.0 1.0 92.8

25 to 34 years ................................................. 17,185 5.6 1.4 1.1 1.1 90.8

35 to 44 years ................................................. 18,965 9.2 1.3 .5 .9 88.1

45 to 54 years ................................................. 13,775 10.9 1.0 .6 .5 87.0

55 to 64 years ................................................. 6,558 12.8 1.2 .4 .6 84.9

65 years and older .......................................... 2,111 20.5 2.5 1.1 .3 75.7

Women, 16 years and older ....................... 58,811 4.8 1.7 1.2 .4 91.9

16 to 19 years ................................................. 2,963 1.4 2.9 1.4 .2 94.1

20 to 24 years ................................................. 5,689 1.4 1.9 1.6 .1 95.1

25 to 34 years ................................................. 14,462 4.1 1.5 1.4 .6 92.5

35 to 44 years ................................................. 16,317 5.4 1.6 1.2 .5 91.4

45 to 54 years ................................................. 12,371 6.0 1.2 1.1 .3 91.4

55 to 64 years ................................................. 5,474 6.1 2.1 1.1 .4 90.3

65 years and older .......................................... 1,535 10.6 5.1 .9 1.0 82.8

Race and Hispanic origin

White ............................................................... 107,899 7.1 1.7 .9 .6 89.7

Black ............................................................... 13,465 3.3 1.2 2.1 .8 92.7

Hispanic origin. ............................................... 12,026 5.1 2.2 1.3 .4 90.9

Full- and part-time status

Full-time workers ............................................. 102,813 6.1 .9 1.0 .7 91.4

Part-time workers ............................................ 23,929 9.3 4.4 1.1 .6 84.6

Educational attainment

(ages 25 to 64)

Less than a high school diploma .................... 10,135 6.5 1.9 1.1 .5 90.0

High school graduate, no college .................... 34,261 6.7 1.2 .9 .8 90.4

Less than a bachelor’s degree ........................ 29,420 6.9 1.6 1.2 .6 89.8

Characteristic

College graduate ............................................. 31,292 8.3 1.2 .7 .7 89.1

NOTE: Workers with traditional arrangements are those who do not fall into

any of the “alternative arrangements” categories. Details may not sum to

total employed because a small number of workers are both “on call” and

“provided by contract firms” and total employed includes day laborers, an

Workers with alternative arrangements

Total

employed

(thousands)

alternative arrangement not shown separately. Details for the above race

and Hispanic-origin groups will not sum to totals because data for the “other

races” group are not presented and Hispanics are included in both the white

and black population groups.

Workers

with

traditional

arrangements

Table 1. Incidence of alternative and traditional work arrangements, by selected characteristics, February 1997

[Percent distribution]

Age and sex
6 Monthly Labor Review November 1998

Workers in Alternative Employment

salespersons. For women, the most frequently occurring

occupations were managers, writers and artists, real estate and

insurance salespersons, door-to-door sales, and child care

providers. Compared with traditional workers, independent

contractors were more frequently employed in the agriculture,

construction, and services industries. (See tables 6 and 7.)

Preference and reason for arrangement. One of the most striking characteristics of independent contractors has to do with

job satisfaction. Compared with workers in the other alternative

arrangements, independent contractors were quite content with

their employment arrangement, with 84 percent of the group

preferring that arrangement to a traditional job. (See table 8.)

Further, about three-fourths of independent contractors gave a

personal reason for being in the arrangement. (See table 9.)

Among men, most said they worked as an independent contractor because they liked being their own boss. Among women, the

most common reasons given were the flexibility of scheduling

and the ability to meet family obligations that the arrangement

afforded. Even among those who said they would prefer a traditional job, a majority gave a personal, rather than an economic,

reason for remaining in the arrangement.

Tenure and contingency. As in February 1995, only a small

fraction of independent contractors reported that they were

contingent workers—3.5 percent in February 1997. (See table

10.) This remained the lowest proportion by far of the alternative arrangements. In effect, the vast majority of independent contractors believed that they could continue in the arrangement for as long as they wished.

Independent contractors had been in the arrangement for a

relatively long time—7.7 years (median), considerably longer

[Percent distribution]

Independent On-call help provided by

contractors workers agency contract

workers firms

Total, 16 years and older

(thousands) ........................ 8,456 1,996 1,300 809 114,199

Percent ................................ 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

16 to 19 years .......................... .8 9.7 6.1 2.0 5.0

20 to 24 years .......................... 2.4 11.9 16.5 8.2 9.8

25 to 34 years .......................... 18.3 22.4 30.3 34.2 25.4

35 to 44 years .......................... 31.1 25.4 21.5 31.1 27.7

45 to 54 years .......................... 26.5 14.4 16.2 14.2 20.4

55 to 64 years .......................... 13.9 9.7 6.7 7.7 9.2

65 years and older ................... 7.0 6.5 2.8 2.7 2.5

Men, 16 years and older ...... 66.6 49.0 44.7 69.8 52.7

16 to 19 years .......................... .3 5.3 2.8 1.1 2.5

20 to 24 years .......................... 1.5 6.4 9.6 7.7 5.1

25 to 34 years .......................... 11.4 11.8 15.2 24.0 13.7

35 to 44 years .......................... 20.7 12.1 6.9 22.0 14.6

45 to 54 years. ......................... 17.7 6.9 6.2 9.1 10.5

55 to 64 years .......................... 9.9 3.9 2.2 5.1 4.9

65 years and older ................... 5.1 2.6 1.8 .9 1.4

Women, 16 years and older . 33.4 51.0 55.3 30.2 47.3

16 to 19 years .......................... .5 4.3 3.2 .7 2.4

20 to 24 years .......................... .9 5.5 6.9 .5 4.7

25 to 34 years .......................... 7.0 10.6 15.2 10.3 11.7

35 to 44 years .......................... 10.4 13.4 14.5 9.1 13.1

45 to 54 years .......................... 8.8 7.5 10.0 5.1 9.9

55 to 64 years .......................... 4.0 5.8 4.5 2.6 4.3

65 years and older ................... 1.9 3.9 1.1 1.9 1.1

Race and Hispanic origin

White ........................................ 90.7 89.3 75.1 81.6 84.8

Black ........................................ 5.3 7.8 21.3 12.9 10.9

Hispanic origin ......................... 7.3 13.3 12.3 6.3 9.6

NOTE: Workers with traditional arrangements are those who do not fall into any of the “alternative arrangements” categories. Details for the above race and

Hispanic-origin groups will not sum to totals because data for the “other races” group are not presented and Hispanics are included in both the white and black

population groups. Details for other characteristics may not sum to totals because of rounding.

Workers

with

traditional

arrangements

Table 2.

Characteristic

Employed persons with alternative and traditional work arrangements, by selected characteristics, February 1997

Workers with alternative arrangements

Age and sex

Temporary Workers
Monthly Labor Review November 1998 7

than traditional workers had been with their current employer

(4.8 years). More than 40 percent of independent contractors

had at least 10 years of tenure in the arrangement, and 18

percent had 20 years or more. These percentages were considerably higher than those for traditional workers, in part a

reflection of the older ages of independent contractors. (See

table 11.) Men in the independent contracting arrangement

had a lengthier average tenure than women (9.2 years and 5.6

years, respectively), but both exceeded the tenure for their

counterparts in traditional jobs.

The lengthy tenure of independent contractors is consistent with the high level of job satisfaction and the low level of

contingency they report. If corporate employees are being

forced out of “regular” jobs and into working for themselves

on a large scale, as some have asserted, there is scant evidence in these data.

Paid employees. Most independent contractors worked

alone; only 25 percent had employees. Of these, nearly threefourths had fewer than six employees. Men were twice as

likely as women to have at least one employee, but even

among the men, the proportion was only 30 percent. The selfemployed who were not independent contractors were much

more likely to have paid employees than were the independent contractors. This is because many of the former were operating businesses, such as restaurants and shops, that typically require workers in addition to the owner.

About 23 percent of independent contractors who reported

that they were self-employed had incorporated their businesses, compared with 34 percent of the other self-employed.

Supporting the idea that the more substantial businesses are

incorporated, independent contractors who had incorporated

their businesses were more than three times as likely to retain

a paid staff as those whose businesses were unincorporated

(59 percent, compared with 18 percent).

Earnings and benefits. Earnings of independent contractors

who usually worked full time were higher (by 15 percent, on

average) than those of workers in traditional arrangements.

This differential reflects several factors, including the older

age profile (and therefore experience levels) of independent

contractors and their predominance in the higher paying

occupational categories. The picture was very different by

gender, however, as earnings of men in the independent

contracting arrangement exceeded those of their counterparts

in traditional arrangements, while earnings of female independent contractors were less than those of their traditional

counterparts. (See table 12.)

Among independent contractors, men’s earnings ($621)

were more than 50 percent higher than women’s ($409).

Among traditional workers, the difference was 28 percent.

The relatively large gender gap reflects in part the men’s

longer tenure as independent contractors. For both men

and women in the arrangement, earnings peaked in the

 Employed persons with alternative and traditional work arrangements, by educational attainment and sex,

 February 1997

[Percent distribution]

Temporary Workers

Independent On-call help provided by

contractors workers agency contract

workers firms

Total, 25 to 64 years (thousands) ................ 7,590 1,437 970 705 94,424

Percent ........................................................ 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Less than a high school diploma ........................ 8.7 13.4 11.1 7.1 9.7

High school graduate, no college ....................... 30.3 28.7 30.7 36.9 32.8

Less than a bachelor’s degree ........................... 26.8 32.0 36.3 23.3 28.0

College graduate ................................................ 34.1 25.9 21.9 32.7 29.5

Men, 25 to 64 years old (thousands) .......... 5,047 692 397 486 49,873

Percent ........................................................ 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Less than a high school diploma ........................ 9.9 18.6 13.9 6.4 11.3

High school graduate, no college ....................... 31.3 33.4 27.5 35.6 31.9

Less than a bachelor's degree ........................... 25.2 30.3 35.1 24.9 26.4

College graduate ................................................ 33.5 17.6 23.5 33.1 30.4

Women, 25 to 64 years old (thousands) ..... 2,543 745 573 219 44,551

Percent ........................................................ 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Less than a high school diploma ........................ 6.2 8.6 9.2 9.1 7.9

High school graduate, no college ....................... 28.4 24.3 33.0 39.5 33.8

Less than a bachelor’s degree ........................... 30.0 33.6 37.2 20.0 29.8

College graduate ................................................ 35.3 33.6 20.6 31.4 28.5

NOTE: Workers with traditional arrangements are those who do not fall into any of the “alternative arrangements” categories. Details may not sum to totals due

to rounding.

Table 3.

Educational attainment and sex

Workers

with

traditional

arrangements

Workers with alternative arrangements
8 Monthly Labor Review November 1998

Workers in Alternative Employment

45- to 54-year-old age category, the same as for traditional

workers.

Nearly three-fourths of independent contractors had health

insurance coverage. Men obtained it most often by purchasing

it on their own (36 percent), followed by obtaining it through

their spouse or other family member (19 percent). Women obtained health insurance most often through a spouse or other

family member (38 percent), followed by purchasing it on their

own (25 percent). Women were more likely than men to have

health insurance coverage. (See table 13.)

Pension coverage was less common than health insurance

coverage. About 37 percent of independent contractors reported some type of pension coverage, often a tax-deferred

savings account, such as an individual retirement account or

a Keogh plan. Men and women were about equally likely to

have pension coverage, but blacks and Hispanics were far

less likely than whites to have coverage. In contrast, among

traditional workers, men were somewhat more likely than

women, and whites and blacks were considerably more likely

than Hispanics, to have coverage.

In sum, independent contracting was made up disproportionately of middle-aged workers who had relatively high

levels of education and experience and, typically, were well

compensated. These workers reported a widespread

preference for working on their own, and very few were contingent—that is, they viewed their employment arrangement

as permanent.

On-call workers

Some workers report to the job only when specifically asked

to do so, although they can be scheduled to work several days

or weeks in a row. In the February supplements, these individuals are referred to as on-call workers. Workers who often

are on call are substitute teachers, construction workers,

nurses, and truckdrivers. (People with regularly scheduled

work that might include periods of being on call at unusual

hours, such as medical residents or computer technicians,

Employed women in alternative and traditional work arrangements, by marital status and presence and age of

children, February 1997

[Percent distribution]

 

Temporary Workers

Independent On-call help provided

contractors workers agency by contract

workers firms

 All marital statuses

Employed women, total (thousands) ....................... 58,811 2,824 1,017 719 244 54,019

Spouses/reference persons, total ......................... 39,771 2,180 687 431 159 36,324

Percent ............................................................ 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

With children under 18 years ............................. 56.3 53.6 61.0 48.0 66.0 56.4

With children under 6 years ............................ 22.7 25.6 26.6 21.8 32.7 22.4

With children 6 to 17 years ............................. 33.6 28.0 34.2 26.2 33.3 34.0

With no children under 18 years ........................ 43.7 46.4 39.2 52.0 34.0 43.6

 Married, spouse present

Employed, total (thousands) .................................... 32,543 1,896 556 319 140 29,639

Spouses/reference persons, total ......................... 32,082 1,881 552 309 136 29,211

Percent ............................................................ 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

With children under 18 years ............................. 53.7 51.5 62.3 40.1 61.0 53.7

With children under 6 years ............................ 22.6 26.0 29.0 16.8 31.6 22.3

With children 6 to 17 years ............................. 31.0 25.4 33.3 23.3 29.4 31.4

With no children under 18 years ........................ 46.3 48.5 37.7 59.9 38.2 46.3

All other marital statuses

Employed, total (thousands) .................................... 26,268 928 461 400 104 24,380

Spouses/reference persons, total ......................... 7,689 299 135 122 23 7,113

Percent ............................................................ 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

With children under 18 years ............................. 67.3 67.2 54.8 68.0 (1

) 67.5

With children under 6 years ............................ 23.0 23.1 17.0 34.4 (1

) 22.9

With children 6 to 17 years ............................. 44.3 44.1 37.8 33.6 (1

) 44.6

With no children under 18 years ........................ 32.7 32.8 45.2 32.0 (1

) 32.5

1

Percentage not shown where base is less than 75,000.

NOTE: Workers with traditional arrangements are those who do not fall into any of the “alternative arrangements” categories. Details may not sum to totals due

to rounding. Estimates by presence and age of children are only for women who are either the spouse of the reference person or the reference person herself—

that is, the person in whose name the home is owned or rented.

 Characteristic

Table 4.

Total

employed

Workers with alternative arrangements

Workers

with

traditional

arrangements
Monthly Labor Review November 1998 9

were not included in this category.)

In February 1997, there were 2 million on-call workers,

and they accounted for 1.6 percent of all employment. Both

figures were about the same as 2 years earlier.

Characteristics. The demographic characteristics of oncall workers were similar to those of traditional workers, although on-call workers were somewhat more likely to be

women and youths. (See table 2.) Slightly more than onehalf (51 percent) of on-call workers were women, compared

with about 47 percent of traditional workers. A somewhat

larger proportion of the women who worked on call had children, 61 percent, versus 56 percent for traditional workers.

(See table 4.) Nearly 22 percent of those on call were under

the age of 25, compared with 15 percent of traditional workers. Youths in the on-call arrangement were somewhat

more likely to be attending school than were their counterparts in traditional arrangements.

On-call workers had somewhat less education, on average, than other workers had. (See table 3.) Of those aged 25

to 64, nearly 1 in 7 had dropped out of high school, compared

with 1 in 10 among traditional workers, and just about 26

percent of on-call workers had a college degree, compared

with nearly 30 percent for workers in traditional arrangements. Among men in the on-call category, 19 percent were

high school dropouts, and only 18 percent were college graduates. Women who worked on call, on the other hand, actually

were more likely to have been to college than their counterparts in traditional jobs. This sharp difference between men

and women in the arrangement is echoed in other ways, as is

Employed persons with alternative and traditional work arrangements, by full- and part-time status, reason for parttime work, sex, and age, February 1997

[Percent distribution]

Temporary Workers

Independent On-call help provided

contractors workers agency by contract

workers firms

Employed, total (thousands) .............................. 126,742 8,456 1,996 1,300 809 114,199

Percent .............................................................. 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Full-time workers ................................................... 81.1 73.6 47.4 80.3 82.8 82.3

Part-time workers .................................................. 18.9 26.4 52.6 19.7 17.2 17.7

At work part time for economic reasons ................ 3.5 6.3 15.2 9.1 3.7 3.0

At work part time for noneconomic reasons .......... 15.0 20.4 36.5 13.3 12.6 14.2

 Men, 20 years and older

Employed, total (thousands) .............................. 64,863 5,608 872 544 555 57,289

Percent .............................................................. 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Full-time workers ................................................... 91.7 84.8 71.6 86.6 92.1 92.7

Part-time workers .................................................. 8.3 15.2 28.4 13.4 7.9 7.3

At work part time for economic reasons ................ 3.1 7.4 19.5 6.1 1.6 2.4

At work part time for noneconomic reasons .......... 5.9 10.4 14.3 8.5 6.3 5.3

Women, 20 years and older

Employed, total (thousands) .............................. 55,848 2,783 931 677 238 51,231

Percent .............................................................. 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Full-time workers ................................................... 74.8 52.0 32.5 77.5 64.3 76.8

Part-time workers .................................................. 25.2 48.0 67.5 22.5 35.7 23.2

At work part time for economic reasons ................ 3.7 3.8 12.4 10.6 7.1 3.4

At work part time for noneconomic reasons .......... 20.1 39.6 50.2 15.4 27.3 18.5

Both sexes, 16 to 19 years

Employed, total (thousands) .............................. 6,031 66 193 79 16 5,678

Percent .............................................................. 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Full-time workers ................................................... 26.4 (1) 10.4 60.8 (1) 26.4

Part-time workers .................................................. 73.6 (1

) 89.6 39.2 (1) 73.6

At work part time for economic reasons ................ 6.0 (1

) 9.3 16.5 (1) 5.6

At work part time for noneconomic reasons .......... 65.9 (1) 69.9 29.1 (1) 66.4

Characteristic

Table 5.

1

 Percentage not shown where base is less than 75,000.

NOTE: Workers with traditional arrangements are those who do not fall into

any of the “alternative arrangements” categories. Details may not sum to totals

due to rounding, and total employed includes day laborers, an alternative arrangement not shown separately. Part time is defined as working 1 to 34 hours

per week; full time is 35 hours or more. The classification of full- and part-time

workers is based on the number of hours usually worked. The sum of the two

at-work-part time categories does not equal the part-time worker estimate,

because the latter includes those not at work during the reference week. Also,

persons at work part time for an economic reason can work either full or part

time on a usual basis; persons at work part time for a noneconomic reason are

limited to those who usually work part time.

Workers with alternative arrangements

Total

employed

Workers

with

traditional

 arrangements

Total
10 Monthly Labor Review November 1998

Workers in Alternative Employment

discussed below.

Few on-call workers, either men or women, were represented by a union—just 1.9 percent, compared with 15.6 percent of workers in traditional jobs.

Part-time status and hours. On-call workers had the shortest

workweek of any alternative arrangement. At 26.7 hours, their

average week was almost 12 hours less than that of workers in

traditional arrangements. More than half (53 percent) of on-call

workers worked part time in a typical week, compared with

only 18 percent of traditional workers. The incidence of parttime work for adult women who were on call (about 68 percent)

was much higher than that of adult men in the arrangement (28

percent). (See table 5.)

Most on-call employees who worked part time had a

preference for their shorter week, but a substantial minority

did not: nearly 30 percent were part time for an economic

reason and would have preferred a full-time job, compared

with 18 percent of traditional workers. There were also clear

distinctions by gender: only about 20 percent of the women

who worked on call worked part time for an economic

reason, but 58 percent of the men did so, compared with 16

percent of women and 32 percent of men in a traditional

arrangement.

Occupation. On-call workers were found in a number of

occupations and were more likely to be in professional, service, precision production, and operator, fabricator, and laborer positions than were traditional workers. (See table

6.) One in 8 on-call workers (1 in 5 of the women) was a

Employed persons with alternative and traditional work arrangements, by occupation and sex, February 1997

[Percent distribution]

Temporary Workers

Independent On-call help provided

contractors workers agency by contract

workers firms

Total, 16 years and older (thousands) ................. 8,456 1,996 1,300 809 114,199

Percent ................................................................ 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Executive, administrative, and managerial ............... 20.7 2.7 6.9 8.0 14.1

Professional specialty .............................................. 17.9 21.2 6.6 19.8 15.3

Technicians and related support .............................. .8 4.1 5.8 7.2 3.4

Sales occupations .................................................... 17.9 6.7 1.7 2.8 11.7

Administrative support, including clerical ................. 3.9 8.6 34.1 5.2 15.3

Service occupations ................................................. 9.1 20.4 9.1 27.7 13.5

Precision production, craft, and repair ..................... 17.9 14.7 5.1 19.8 10.3

Operators, fabricators, and laborers ........................ 6.8 18.8 29.1 9.3 14.3

Farming, forestry, and fishing ................................... 5.1 2.8 1.6 .2 2.2

Men, 16 years and older (thousands) .................. 5,633 979 581 565 60,180

Percent ................................................................ 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Executive, administrative, and managerial ............... 23.1 3.2 4.6 8.1 14.4

Professional specialty .............................................. 15.6 9.7 9.5 17.9 13.4

Technicians and related support .............................. .8 3.4 8.1 6.9 3.2

Sales occupations .................................................... 16.1 2.8 1.5 2.7 10.8

Administrative support, including clerical ................. 1.0 4.0 13.9 3.5 6.3

Service occupations ................................................. 2.4 11.7 7.9 23.5 10.5

Precision production, craft, and repair ..................... 25.6 29.1 10.3 26.5 17.8

Operators, fabricators, and laborers ........................ 8.8 31.7 41.1 10.4 20.4

Farming, forestry, and fishing ................................... 6.7 4.5 2.9 .4 3.3

Women, 16 years and older (thousands) ............ 2,824 1,017 719 244 54,019

Percent ................................................................ 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Executive, administrative, and managerial ............... 15.9 2.3 8.8 7.8 13.8

Professional specialty .............................................. 22.5 32.3 4.3 24.2 17.5

Technicians and related support .............................. .8 4.7 3.9 7.8 3.6

Sales occupations .................................................... 21.5 10.5 1.7 2.9 12.7

Administrative support, including clerical ................. 9.6 13.0 50.3 9.0 25.3

Service occupations ................................................. 22.4 28.8 9.9 37.7 16.8

Precision production, craft, and repair ..................... 2.5 .8 1.0 4.1 1.8

Operators, fabricators, and laborers ........................ 2.8 6.5 19.5 6.6 7.6

Farming, forestry, and fishing ................................... 1.9 1.2 .6 – .9

NOTE: Workers with traditional arrangements are those who do not fall into any of the “alternative arrangements” categories. Details may not sum to totals due

to rounding. Dash indicates less than 0.05 percent.

Table 6.

Workers

with

traditional

arrangements

Occupation and sex

Workers with alternative arrangements
Monthly Labor Review November 1998 11

teacher (presumably a substitute), and 1 in 8 workers in

the on-call category (1 in 4 of the men) was a carpenter,

electrician, painter, or other construction craftworker. A

sizable number of on-call workers were in a medical care

field, including registered nurses, nursing aides, and

health technicians.

There was very little overlap in the jobs done by men and

women in this arrangement. The men who worked on call

were likely to be construction craftworkers, motor vehicle

operators (especially truckdrivers), and cleaners, helpers, and

construction laborers, while the women were most often

working as substitute teachers, clerical workers, food preparation workers, nurses, and retail salesclerks.

Preference and reason. One-half of on-call workers would

have preferred a traditional job. (See table 8.) This figure represents a decline from that registered 2 years earlier, when

about 57 percent had such a preference, suggesting that more

on-call workers were in the arrangement voluntarily in the

more recent survey.

About equal numbers of on-call workers gave economic

and personal reasons for working in the arrangement. (See

table 9.) A majority of the men gave an economic reason;

a majority of the women gave a personal one. The most

often-cited economic reason was that the current job was

the only one the individual could find. The most common

personal reason was the flexibility of the schedule. Of

those who gave an economic reason for working on call,

nearly one-fourth were actively looking for another type

of work, compared with only 5 percent of those who gave

Employed persons with alternative and traditional work arrangements, by industry and sex, February 1997

 Workers with alternative arrangements

Workers

provided

by

contract

firms

Total, 16 years and older (thousands) .................................. 8,456 1,996 1,300 809 114,199

Percent ................................................................................. 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Agriculture ................................................................................ 5.7 3.4 – .3 2.1

Mining ....................................................................................... .2 .4 .7 2.2 .5

Construction ............................................................................. 20.7 14.5 2.5 5.0 4.9

Manufacturing ........................................................................... 4.7 5.3 31.8 20.3 17.5

Transportation and public utilities ............................................. 5.1 8.7 6.1 13.7 7.1

Wholesale and retail trade ........................................................ 13.6 14.4 8.4 8.3 21.1

Finance, insurance, and real estate .......................................... 8.4 1.6 8.5 7.9 6.4

Services .................................................................................... 41.4 47.8 42.0 28.2 35.5

Public administration ................................................................ .2 4.0 – 14.0 4.8

Men, 16 years and older (thousands) .................................. 5,633 979 581 565 60,180

Percent ................................................................................. 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Agriculture ................................................................................ 7.1 5.5 – .4 3.0

Mining ....................................................................................... .3 .7 – 2.5 .8

Construction ............................................................................. 29.4 29.1 3.5 7.3 8.4

Manufacturing ........................................................................... 5.1 6.4 38.2 22.4 22.9

Transportation and public utilities ............................................. 6.4 13.6 9.2 16.1 9.6

Wholesale and retail trade ........................................................ 11.9 11.7 11.0 7.5 21.1

Finance, insurance, and real estate .......................................... 8.1 1.4 6.8 6.7 4.8

Services .................................................................................... 31.6 26.2 31.3 22.6 24.4

Public administration ................................................................ .1 5.3 – 14.7 5.1

Women, 16 years and older (thousands) ............................. 2,824 1,017 719 244 54,019

Percent ................................................................................. 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Agriculture ................................................................................ 3.0 1.4 – – 1.1

Mining ....................................................................................... – .1 1.3 1.7 .2

Construction ............................................................................. 3.4 .5 1.6 – 1.1

Manufacturing. .......................................................................... 4.1 4.2 26.6 15.7 11.5

Transportation and public utilities ............................................. 2.4 3.9 3.5 8.5 4.3

Wholesale and retail trade ........................................................ 17.0 16.8 6.3 10.2 21.2

Finance, insurance, and real estate .......................................... 9.1 1.7 9.8 10.6 8.2

Services .................................................................................... 60.8 68.4 50.9 40.9 47.8

Public administration ................................................................ .3 2.9 – 12.3 4.5

NOTE: Workers with traditional arrangements are those who do not fall into any of the “alternative arrangements” categories. Details may not sum to totals due

to rounding. For temporary help agency workers and workers provided by contract firms, the industry classification is that of the place to which they were

assigned. Dash indicates less than 0.05 percent.

Industry and sex Temporary

 help

agency

workers

Workers

with

 traditional

arrangements

[Percent distribution]

Table 7.

Independent

contractors

On-call

workers
12 Monthly Labor Review November 1998

Workers in Alternative Employment

a personal reason.

Tenure and contingency. On-call workers had been in the

arrangement an average of 2.1 years. (See table 11.) Fulltime workers had been in the arrangement twice as long as

part-time workers (2.9 years versus 1.4 years).

About 27 percent of on-call workers were contingent

under the broadest measure (estimate 3 in table 10); that

is, they believed that their current assignment could not

continue for as long as they wished it to. Among workers

in traditional arrangements, less than 4 percent were contingent. Two years ago, the proportion of on-call workers

who were contingent was considerably higher—about 35

percent.

Compensation. On-call workers who worked full time (at

least 35 hours per week) earned $432 a week, or 85 percent

of the median for traditional workers. (See table 12.) There

was a particularly large gender gap for workers in this arrangement: among full-time workers, women earned just 56

percent of what men earned. By contrast, the earnings of

women who worked in traditional jobs were 78 percent of

those of men in the same category.

Two-thirds of on-call workers had health insurance, and

20 percent received it through their current employer

(compared with 83 percent and 61 percent, respectively,

for traditional workers). (See table 14.) Women who

worked on call were more likely to have coverage from

any source, but men were more likely to have it from their

employer. Many of the women were covered through another family member. Only 31 percent of on-call workers

reported that they were eligible for health insurance coverage from their employer, less than half the proportion

for traditional workers (73 percent).

About one-fourth of on-call workers were eligible for

an employer-provided pension, and 19 percent were

actually included in such a plan. These proportions were

considerably lower than those for traditional workers (57

percent and 50 percent, respectively). Men in the on-call

arrangement were somewhat more likely than the women

to have a pension, as well as to be eligible for one through

their employer.

In sum, employment in the on-call arrangement was essentially flat between 1995 and 1997, and large differences

by gender remained. There was some evidence that workers

were more likely to prefer the arrangement to a traditional

job and were less likely to be contingent in February 1997

compared with 2 years earlier.

Temporary help agency workers

The February supplements have collected information on two

types of employment arrangements in which workers are

employed by one company while performing work for another. The larger of the two is temporary help agencies, which

place (as well as screen, evaluate, and sometimes train) workEmployed persons with alternative work arrangements, by sex and preference for arrangement, February 1997

[(Percent distribution]

Independent Temporary help

contractors agency workers

Total, 16 years and older (thousands) ........................ 8,456 1,996 1,300

Percent ....................................................................... 100.0 100.0 100.0

Prefer traditional arrangement ........................................... 9.3 50.1 59.2

Prefer alternative arrangement .......................................... 83.6 40.0 33.5

It depends .......................................................................... 4.6 6.4 4.8

Not available ...................................................................... 2.5 3.5 2.5

Men, 16 years and older (thousands) ......................... 5,633 979 581

Percent ....................................................................... 100.0 100.0 100.0

Prefer traditional arrangement ........................................... 9.4 52.5 62.4

Prefer alternative arrangement .......................................... 83.9 35.5 31.4

It depends .......................................................................... 4.4 8.1 4.5

Not available ...................................................................... 2.2 3.9 1.7

Women, 16 years and older (thousands) .................... 2,824 1,017 719

Percent ....................................................................... 100.0 100.0 100.0

Prefer traditional arrangement ........................................... 9.0 47.7 56.7

Prefer alternative arrangement .......................................... 83.0 44.3 35.1

It depends .......................................................................... 5.0 4.8 5.0

Not available ...................................................................... 2.9 3.1 3.2

NOTE: Details may not sum to totals because of rounding. Information on preferred arrangement was not collected for workers employed by contract

companies.

Preference and sex

Table 8.

On-call workers
Monthly Labor Review November 1998 13

ers with client organizations, often (but not necessarily) on a

short-term basis.5 Workers in this arrangement indicated that

they were paid by a temporary help agency, whether or not

their employment was temporary. (Thus, the category likely

includes the permanent staffs of the agencies, a relatively

small number.)

In February 1997, 1.3 million people were employees of

temporary help agencies, accounting for 1 percent of all workers.6 The number of workers in this arrangement increased

by 10 percent from February 1995, considerably faster than

the growth in traditional employment (2.8 percent). As with

the other alternative arrangements, most characteristics of

these workers changed little between the survey dates, although there is some evidence of an increase in the number

who preferred the arrangement to a traditional job and a decline in the number who were contingent.

Characteristics. Confirming the results of the 1995 survey,

workers employed by temporary help agencies in February

1997 were more likely than other workers to be young, female, black, or Hispanic. (See table 2.) Nearly one-fourth of

temps were under the age of 25, compared with 15 percent of

traditional workers. Relatively few of the young workers in

this arrangement were going to school; just 16 percent were

attending high school or college, compared with 43 percent

of young people working in a traditional job. About 55 percent of temps were women, compared with 47 percent of traditional workers. Nearly one-half of the women who temped

were raising children; this was a smaller proportion than that

for traditional workers, who tend to be older. (See table 4.)

The proportion of temps who were black (21 percent) was

nearly double that for other workers, and the share that was

Hispanic also exceeded the proportion of Hispanics in the

Employed persons with alternative work arrangements, by sex and reason for arrangement, February 1997

[Percent distribution]

Independent On-call Temporary help

contractors workers agency workers

Total (in thousands) ..................................................... 8,456 1,996 1,300

Percent ........................................................................ 100.0 100.0 100.0

Economic reason ............................................................... 9.4 40.7 59.6

Only type of work I could find .......................................... 2.7 27.1 34.6

Hope job leads to permanent employment ..................... .7 5.3 17.7

Other economic reason ................................................... 6.0 8.3 7.2

Personal reason ................................................................. 76.0 39.4 29.3

Flexibility of schedule ...................................................... 23.6 22.4 16.1

Family or personal obligations ......................................... 3.9 6.0 2.4

In school or training ......................................................... .6 6.4 4.5

Other personal reason .................................................... 48.0 4.6 6.4

Reason not available ......................................................... 14.6 19.9 11.1

Men (in thousands) ...................................................... 5,633 979 581

Percent ........................................................................ 100.0 100.0 100.0

Economic reason ............................................................... 10.2 50.1 65.2

Only type of work I could find .......................................... 2.7 33.1 41.0

Hope job leads to permanent employment ..................... .6 5.0 15.7

Other economic reason ................................................... 6.9 12.0 8.4

Personal reason ................................................................. 74.7 27.6 22.2

Flexibility of schedule ...................................................... 18.0 15.9 10.7

Family or personal obligations ......................................... 1.4 1.6 .9

In school or training ......................................................... .4 5.1 4.3

Other personal reason .................................................... 55.1 4.9 6.4

Reason not available ......................................................... 15.1 22.4 12.7

Women (in thousands) ................................................ 2,824 1,017 719

Percent ........................................................................ 100.0 100.0 100.0

Economic reason ............................................................... 7.8 31.7 55.0

Only type of work I could find .......................................... 2.8 21.2 29.4

Hope job leads to permanent employment ..................... .8 5.6 19.3

Other economic reason ................................................... 4.1 4.8 6.3

Personal reason ................................................................. 78.5 50.7 35.1

Flexibility of schedule ...................................................... 34.6 28.5 20.4

Family or personal obligations ......................................... 9.1 10.1 3.6

In school or training ......................................................... 1.0 7.6 4.7

Other personal reason .................................................... 33.8 4.4 6.4

Reason not available ......................................................... 13.7 17.7 9.9

NOTE: Details may not sum to totals because of rounding. Information on reason for alternative arrangement was not collected for workers employed by

contract companies.

 Reason and sex

Table 9.
14 Monthly Labor Review November 1998

Workers in Alternative Employment

general workforce. (See table 2.) In contrast to the situation

among whites and blacks, more Hispanic men than Hispanic

women worked in this arrangement.

A somewhat higher proportion of temps than traditional

workers aged 25 to 64 had dropped out of high school. A

majority of temps had at least 1 year of college, but fewer

had a college degree, compared with traditional workers (22

percent and 30 percent, respectively). (See table 3.)

Part-time status. Perhaps surprisingly, given the episodic nature of their work, the great majority (80 percent)

of temps worked a full-time week of at least 35 hours.

(See table 5.) Men in this arrangement averaged 39 hours

per week on the job, and women averaged 34 hours, almost as much as traditional workers (41 and 35 hours,

respectively). Of those temps who worked part time, a

very large share—41 percent—would have preferred a

full-time job, compared with only 18 percent of workers

in traditional jobs. Male and female temps had a similar

incidence of involuntary part-time work.

Occupation and industry. Temporary help agency employees

worked predominantly in clerical and machine operator occupations, although there were substantial differences by gender. Of

the women in the arrangement, one-half held clerical jobs, 20

percent were in machine operator, fabricator, and laborer positions, and 13 percent worked as managers and professionals.

Among the men, 41 percent worked as operators, fabricators, or

laborers, while clerical jobs and managerial and professional jobs

accounted for 14 percent apiece. (See table 6.)

Manufacturing companies and, to a lesser extent, service

industry firms, were heavy users of temporary help workers,

relative to their share of total employment, while retail

establishments and government agencies were relatively

infrequent users. Manufacturing and services combined

accounted for three-fourths of the temporaries’ assignments.

(See table 7; data on the industries temps were assigned to

were not available for about 13 percent of persons in the

arrangement—hence, the preceding conclusions characterize

just those who responded to the survey question about

industry of assignment.)

Preference and reason. Just 1 in 3 temporary help agency

workers preferred their arrangement to a traditional job.

Employed persons with alternative and traditional work arrangements, by sex and contingent and noncontingent

employment, February 1997

Estimate Estimate Estimate

123

With alternative arrangements:

Independent contractors ........................................... 8,456 (2

) 3.5 3.5 96.5

On-call workers ......................................................... 1,996 13.9 14.2 26.7 73.3

Temporary help agency workers ............................... 1,300 27.7 42.5 56.8 43.2

Workers provided by contract firms ........................... 809 5.3 12.0 16.7 83.3

With traditional arrangements ...................................... 114,199 1.5 1.6 3.4 96.6

Men

With alternative arrangements:

Independent contractors ........................................... 5,633 (2

) 2.5 2.5 97.5

On-call workers ......................................................... 979 17.2 17.9 30.6 69.3

Temporary help agency workers ............................... 581 28.7 41.8 56.5 43.5

Workers provided by contract firms ........................... 565 6.7 12.6 17.0 83.0

With traditional arrangements ...................................... 60,180 1.3 1.4 3.1 96.9

 Women

With alternative arrangements:

Independent contractors ........................................... 2,824 (2

) 5.5 5.5 94.5

On-call workers ......................................................... 1,017 10.6 10.6 22.8 77.2

Temporary help agency workers ............................... 719 26.8 43.1 57.2 42.8

Workers provided by contract firms ........................... 244 2.0 10.6 15.9 84.1

With traditional arrangements ...................................... 54,019 1.7 1.8 3.7 96.3

Table 10.

Arrangement and sex

Noncontingent

workers

Contingent workers1 Total

(thousands)

Percent distribution

1For a definition of estimates 1, 2, and 3, see the appendix to Steven Hipple's

article, pp. 34–35, this issue.

2

Not applicable.

NOTE: Noncontingent workers are those who do not fall into any estimate of

“contingent” workers. Workers with traditional arrangements are those who do

not fall into any of the “alternative arrangements” categories. Independent contractors, as well as the self-employed, are excluded from estimate 1.

Total
Monthly Labor Review November 1998 15

Women had a slightly higher preference for the arrangement

than did men; still, nearly 60 percent of all temps said that

they would prefer a traditional job. (The remainder did not

express a clear preference.) (See table 8.)

Even so, the February 1997 survey found a higher proportion of workers who were in the arrangement voluntarily

compared with the figure 2 years earlier. Those who preferred the arrangement rose by about 7 percentage points.

When asked about the main reason they were working in

the arrangement, a majority of temps provided an economic

reason, the most common being that that was the only type of

work they could find. The second most common economic

reason was the hope that the assignment with the temporary

agency would lead to permanent employment. The most often-cited personal reason was the flexibility of the schedule.

Percentagewise, more men than women gave an economic

reason for working in this arrangement; even so, more than

one-half of all female temps gave an economic reason. (See

table 9.) One-third of temps who said they would prefer a

traditional job were actively looking for one.

Temporary Workers

Independent On-call help provided

contractors workers agency by contract

workers firms

Total, 16 years and older (thousands) 8,456 1,996 1,300 809 114,199

Percent .................................................................. 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Total reporting specific tenure...................................... 97.6 96.2 95.4 97.4 96.1

1 year or less ......................................................... 14.5 44.8 71.0 40.5 24.7

Less than 6 months ........................................... 5.4 25.3 42.6 19.2 10.2

6 to 12 months ................................................... 9.1 19.5 28.3 21.4 14.5

More than 1 year ................................................... 83.2 51.4 24.5 56.9 71.4

Less than 4 years .............................................. 15.8 21.5 15.9 27.2 19.0

4 to 9 years ........................................................ 25.4 17.3 7.0 18.7 24.3

10 to 19 years .................................................... 24.2 9.2 1.6 9.4 17.9

20 years or more ................................................ 17.8 3.4 – 1.6 10.2

Specific tenure not available ........................................ 2.4 3.8 4.6 2.6 3.9

Median tenure (in years) .............................................. 7.7 2.1 .5 2.1 4.8

Men, 16 years and older (thousands) .................... 5,633 979 581 565 60,180

Percent .................................................................. 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Total reporting specific tenure...................................... 97.6 95.7 94.5 97.0 95.8

1 year or less ......................................................... 11.9 41.3 67.7 40.2 23.3

Less than 6 months ........................................... 3.9 20.6 42.8 19.5 9.8

6 to 12 months ................................................... 8.0 20.7 24.9 20.7 13.5

More than 1 year ................................................... 85.7 54.4 27.0 56.8 72.5

Less than 4 years .............................................. 14.3 20.0 19.1 25.8 18.2

4 to 9 years ........................................................ 24.4 16.3 7.2 19.6 23.6

10 to 19 years .................................................... 25.0 12.2 .7 9.0 18.2

20 years or more ................................................ 21.9 5.9 – 2.3 12.5

Specific tenure not available ........................................ 2.4 4.2 5.3 3.0 4.2

Median tenure (in years) .............................................. 9.2 2.4 .5 2.0 5.2

Women, 16 years and older (thousands) .............. 2,824 1,017 719 244 54,019

Percent .................................................................. 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

Total reporting specific tenure...................................... 97.7 96.7 96.0 98.4 96.5

1 year or less ......................................................... 19.7 48.3 73.6 41.2 26.3

Less than 6 months ........................................... 8.3 29.9 42.3 18.5 10.7

6 to 12 months ................................................... 11.3 18.4 31.3 22.6 15.6

More than 1 year ................................................... 78.1 48.4 22.4 57.2 70.2

 Less than 4 years ............................................. 18.8 22.9 13.2 30.5 19.9

 4 to 9 years ....................................................... 27.2 18.2 7.0 16.5 25.1

10 to 19 years .................................................... 22.6 6.3 2.1 10.3 17.6

20 years or more ................................................ 9.6 1.0 – – 7.6

Specific tenure not available ........................................ 2.3 3.4 4.0 1.6 3.5

Median tenure (in years) .............................................. 5.6 1.8 .5 2.2 4.4

NOTE: Workers with traditional arrangements are those who do not fall into any of the “alternative arrangements” categories. Details may not sum to totals due

to rounding. For workers with traditional arrangements, estimates reflect tenure with the current employer. Median tenure was calculated only for those who

reported a specific tenure. Dash indicates less than 0.05 percent.

Tenure and sex

Workers

with

traditional

arrangements

Table 11. Employed persons with alternative and traditional work arrangements, by tenure in the arrangement and sex,

February 1997

[Percent distribution]

Workers with alternative arrangements
16 Monthly Labor Review November 1998

Workers in Alternative Employment

Tenure and contingency. The February 1997 survey confirmed that people employed by temporary help agencies can

be assigned to one client for a relatively long time. While

about 35 percent of temps had been in their current assignment for less than 3 months, nearly one-quarter had been in

their assignment for more than a year. The median current

tenure in the assignment was about 5 months.

Tenure in the employment arrangement was somewhat

higher than tenure in the assignment. About 37 percent had

been in the arrangement for at least 1 year, and 23 percent

had been in the arrangement for 2 or more years; the median

tenure was 6 months. (See table 11.)

About 57 percent of temporary help agency workers were

contingent under table 10’s estimate 3, which, for temps, is

based on their attachment to the current assignment. While

this contingency rate continued to be the highest of any of the

alternative arrangements studied, it was down by 10 percentage points from the rate obtained in the 1995 survey.

Although their assignments typically were short lived,

many temps believed that they could remain in the arrangement indefinitely. Under estimate 1, in which temporary help

agency workers were counted as contingent if they believed

they could not remain in the arrangement for as long as they

wished, only 28 percent were contingent.

Special characteristics. Nearly all temps reported being

Median weekly earnings of full-time workers with alternative and traditional work arrangements, by selected

Temporary Workers Workers with

Independent On-call help agency provided by traditional

contractors workers workers contract firms arrangements

Total, 16 years and older ................ $587 $432 $329 $619 $510

16 to 19 years .................................... (1) 243 (1) (1) 237

20 to 24 years .................................... 478 328 286 (1) 328

25 years and older ............................. 590 457 364 681 550

25 to 34 years ................................ 481 440 373 679 486

35 to 44 years ................................ 588 501 343 686 579

45 to 54 years ................................ 670 408 351 734 613

55 to 64 years ................................ 590 456 (1) (1) 575

65 years and older ......................... 500 231 (1) (1) 458

Men, 16 years and older ................ 621 508 385 685 578

16 to 19 years .................................... (1) (1

) (1) (1) 252

20 to 24 years .................................... 523 328 312 (1) 343

25 years and older ............................. 624 524 406 727 613

25 to 34 years ................................ 513 576 403 783 523

35 to 44 years ................................ 618 521 405 702 630

45 to 54 years ................................ 739 636 (1) (1) 717

55 to 64 years ................................ 622 (1) (1) (1) 679

65 years and older ......................... 731 (1) (1) (1) 669

Women, 16 years and older ........... 409 286 305 439 450

16 to 19 years .................................... (1) (1) (1) (1) 217

20 to 24 years .................................... (1) (1

) 252 (1) 309

25 years and older ............................. 414 287 323 439 479

25 to 34 years ................................ 378 253 323 396 425

35 to 44 years ................................ 434 450 308 (1) 506

45 to 54 years ................................ 508 234 338 (1) 515

55 to 64 years ................................ 397 (1

) (1) (1) 440

65 years and older ......................... 298 (1) (1) (1) 361

Race and Hispanic origin

White ................................................. 603 455 324 675 524

Black .................................................. 399 378 332 394 428

Hispanic origin ................................... 438 321 281 (1) 357

Educational attainment

Less than a high school diploma ....... 398 289 265 (1) 302

High school graduate, no college ...... 512 423 310 491 427

Some college, no degree ................... 581 498 306 522 494

Associate's degree ............................ 523 558 433 (1) 519

College graduate ............................... 752 521 497 910 769

1Data not shown where base is less than 75,000.

NOTE: Workers with traditional arrangements are those who do not fall into any of the “alternative arrangement” categories.

 characteristics, February 1997

Table 12.

Characteristic

Age and sex
Monthly Labor Review November 1998 17

assigned to just one place in the reference week. Eighty percent were registered with just one temporary help agency. Less

than 2 percent were represented by a union or an employee

association.

Compensation. Temporary help agency workers had the

lowest earnings of workers in the four alternative arrangements studied. At $329 per week for full-time workers, their

median earnings were about two-thirds of the earnings of traditional workers ($510). (See table 12.) The low earnings of

temporary help agency workers are, in part, a reflection of the

fact that the clerical and machine operator jobs they typically

hold pay lower-than-average wages.

Women in the arrangement earned about 79 percent of what

men earned, a gender gap comparable to that of other workers. Younger temps and those with less schooling generally

had earnings closer to those of their counterparts in traditional

arrangements, while older and college-educated workers who

temped experienced a more substantial earnings deficit. The

earnings of black and white temps were about the same, unlike the situation of traditional workers.

Temporary agencies did not commonly provide health

insurance and pension benefits to their workers. (See table

14.) In fact, the rates of coverage for these workers were the

lowest of the arrangements studied. For instance, 26 percent

of temporary help agency workers were eligible for their

employer’s health insurance coverage, compared with nearly

75 percent of traditional workers, and only 7 percent of temps

obtained health insurance through their employer, compared

with 61 percent of traditional workers. Just 46 percent of temps

had health insurance from any source, compared with 83

percent of traditional workers. Women were more likely than

men to have coverage at all, often through a family member.

Pension coverage was even lower than health insurance

coverage: about 1 temp in 10 was eligible for his or her

employer’s pension plan, and about 4 percent of all temps

actually participated in such a plan. For traditional workers,

the proportions were 57 and 50 percent, respectively.

In sum, most temporary help agency workers were employed as clerical workers and machine operators. Most temps

worked full time, and one-quarter had been on their current

assignment for more than a year. Pay and benefits were at

relatively low levels. Still, one-third of temps preferred their

arrangement to a traditional job, and there was evidence that

this proportion rose between 1995 and 1997 and that the proportion who were contingent fell.

Contract company workers

The smallest of the four alternative arrangements was contract

company employment, with about 800,000 workers. These

individuals worked for a company that provides employees or

Percent of independent contractors with health insurance and pension coverage, by selected characteristics,

With health insurance coverage With pension coverage

Through Through

current spouse or

employer other family

at main job member

Age and sex

Total, 16 years and older ........................ 8,456 72.7 2.5 25.5 32.3 11.5 37.4 35.1

16 to 24 years ............................................ 272 55.9 5.9 29.8 10.7 7.7 6.6 4.0

25 years and older ..................................... 8,185 73.2 2.4 25.3 33.0 11.6 38.4 36.2

25 to 34 years ........................................ 1,549 64.7 1.8 26.1 28.5 7.1 18.9 17.2

35 to 44 years ........................................ 2,631 70.9 3.1 30.7 31.2 5.4 37.8 34.6

45 to 54 years ........................................ 2,237 74.0 2.2 25.4 36.6 9.3 43.6 41.8

55 years and older ................................. 1,768 83.1 2.1 16.6 35.0 27.9 50.0 47.9

Men ............................................................ 5,633 70.6 2.6 19.0 36.1 12.4 38.1 35.9

Women ...................................................... 2,824 76.8 2.5 38.3 24.7 9.8 36.0 33.6

Race and Hispanic origin

White ......................................................... 7,667 74.1 2.5 25.9 33.0 11.8 39.1 36.8

Black .......................................................... 448 52.2 3.8 20.5 19.6 8.3 15.2 12.5

Hispanic origin ........................................... 614 45.4 2.8 14.3 19.1 8.1 13.2 11.6

Full- and part-time status

Full-time workers ....................................... 5,980 72.0 2.9 21.7 37.9 8.8 38.9 36.4

Part-time workers ...................................... 2,378 74.2 1.6 35.2 17.8 18.6 33.4 31.5

Total

(percent)

IRA or

Keogh

Purchased

on own

Total

(percent)

Other

sources

February 1997

Characteristic

Table 13.

NOTE: Details for the above race and Hispanic-origin groups will not sum

to totals because data for the “other races” group are not presented and

Hispanics are included in both the white and black population groups. Details

for full- and part-time workers will not sum to totals because the usual status

on the principal job is not identifiable for a small number of multiple jobholders. Details for sources of health insurance coverage will not sum to totals

because information on a specific source was not always available.

Number

(thousands)
18 Monthly Labor Review November 1998

Workers in Alternative Employment

Percent of persons in alternative and traditional work arrangements with health insurance and pension

Total, 16 years and older ...................................... 1,996 67.3 19.6 4.4 31.0 19.2 24.5

16 to 24 years .................................................... 430 70.7 11.4 1.4 19.1 4.9 7.2

25 years and older ............................................. 1,567 66.4 21.8 5.2 34.2 23.2 29.3

25 to 34 years ................................................. 448 58.3 23.7 4.5 38.6 19.9 28.6

35 to 44 years ................................................. 508 64.8 23.8 4.7 38.2 26.8 32.1

45 to 54 years ................................................. 288 68.4 21.9 5.2 32.3 22.6 26.7

55 years and older .......................................... 322 78.9 16.1 7.5 23.6 22.7 28.3

Men ...................................................................... 979 60.3 29.3 8.0 38.2 23.1 28.3

Women ................................................................. 1,017 74.1 10.2 1.0 24.0 15.5 20.8

Race and Hispanic origin:

White ..................................................................... 1,783 68.1 19.4 4.8 30.7 19.5 24.7

Black ...................................................................... 156 61.5 20.5 1.3 28.8 19.9 21.2

Hispanic origin ....................................................... 265 37.7 17.7 3.0 26.0 8.7 14.3

Full- and part-time status:

Full-time workers ................................................... 896 62.5 34.6 7.9 48.2 30.2 37.6

Part-time workers ................................................... 1,079 70.9 7.5 1.4 17.2 10.5 13.8

Temporary help agency workers

Age and sex:

Total, 16 years and older ...................................... 1,300 46.4 7.0 1.9 26.0 3.7 10.5

16 to 24 years .................................................... 293 39.6 4.4 1.7 19.8 2.0 6.8

25 years and older ............................................. 1,007 48.5 7.7 1.9 27.9 4.2 11.5

25 to 34 years ................................................. 394 35.5 6.6 .5 27.2 3.3 9.6

35 to 44 years ................................................. 279 47.0 9.0 1.1 32.3 4.3 10.4

45 to 54 years ................................................. 211 54.0 10.9 3.3 28.9 5.2 18.5

55 years and older .......................................... 124 83.1 3.2 5.6 18.5 3.2 8.9

Men ...................................................................... 581 37.9 8.1 2.2 27.9 3.4 11.2

Women ................................................................. 719 53.3 6.1 1.7 24.5 3.8 9.9

Race and Hispanic origin:

White ..................................................................... 976 49.8 7.9 1.4 27.7 4.9 12.0

Black ...................................................................... 277 32.1 4.0 1.8 13.0 (1) 2.9

Hispanic origin ....................................................... 160 28.1 3.8 (1) 26.9 1.9 9.4

Full- and part-time status:

Full-time workers ................................................... 1,023 42.2 8.6 1.3 29.9 4.7 11.8

Part-time workers ................................................... 275 61.5 .7 4.0 10.9 (1) 4.7

 Workers provided by contract firms

Age and sex:

Total, 16 years and older ...................................... 809 81.7 50.2 3.3 68.7 35.6 45.9

16 to 24 years .................................................... 82 74.4 43.9 (1) 57.3 28.0 43.9

25 years and older ............................................. 728 82.4 50.8 3.7 70.1 36.4 46.0

25 to 34 years ................................................. 277 85.9 59.2 3.2 73.3 34.3 43.7

35 to 44 years ................................................. 252 75.0 46.8 3.2 69.0 35.3 46.4

45 to 54 years ................................................. 115 87.0 55.7 6.1 71.3 43.5 51.3

55 years and older .......................................... 84 86.9 29.8 3.6 61.9 38.1 45.2

Men ...................................................................... 565 81.2 57.0 4.2 72.0 42.7 52.0

Women ................................................................. 244 83.2 34.8 1.2 61.1 19.3 32.0

Race and Hispanic origin:

White ..................................................................... 660 82.7 49.1 4.1 67.1 36.5 47.6

Black ...................................................................... 104 69.2 42.3 (1) 67.3 31.7 41.3

Hispanic origin ....................................................... 51 (2) (2) (2) (2) (2) (2)

Full- and part-time status:

Full-time workers ................................................... 659 81.8 58.6 3.6 75.6 39.8 50.7

Part-time workers ................................................... 148 81.1 12.8 2.0 37.8 16.2 23.6

coverage, by selected characteristics, February 1997

Table 14.

total

 (percent)

Through

other job

or union

Total

(percent)

Eligible for

employerprovided

pension

Through

current

employer

at main job

Characteristic

With pension

coverage,

Age and sex:

On-call workers

Number

(thousands)

Eligible for

employerprovided

health

insurance

With health insurance coverage
Monthly Labor Review November 1998 19

their services to other organizations under contract, and they

usually worked for one customer at a time at the customer’s

work site. This arrangement grew by 24 percent from 1995 to

1997, much faster than the growth of traditional employment

(2.8 percent). Even so, contract company workers accounted

for just 0.6 percent of all workers in February 1997.7

Contract company workers differed from other workers in

several respects: they were disproportionately male (70 percent), relatively few were young or old, and about two-thirds

were 25 to 44 years old. Also, two-thirds of the women had at

least one child, reflecting the preponderance of workers of

childbearing age. (See tables 2 and 4.)

Part-time status. At 16 percent, the proportion of contract

company employees who worked part time was essentially

the same as that of traditional workers. (See table 5.) There

was a large difference by gender in part-time work, as 36 percent of women who were contract company workers, but only

8 percent of men, worked part time. As with traditional workers, roughly 80 percent of the part-timers in the arrangement

voluntarily worked a shorter week.

Occupation and industry. The occupational distribution of

contract company workers was quite unlike that of traditional

workers: contract company workers were more likely to hold

professional, technical, service, and precision production jobs,

while comparatively few held managerial, sales, and clerical

positions. Fully one-half of the men were in service and precision production positions, compared with just 28 percent of men

in traditional arrangements. More than 60 percent of the women

were in professional and service occupations, compared with

just 34 percent of women in traditional jobs. Government agencies, manufacturing firms, and transportation and utility companies were large users of contract company workers relative to

their share of total employment. (See tables 6 and 7.)

The contract company employment arrangement had the

highest rate of union representation of the four alternative arrangements, but, at 5 percent, was still just a fraction of the

rate among traditional jobholders (about 16 percent).

Tenure and contingency. Many contract company workers had

been in the arrangement a relatively short time. About 40 percent had been contract company workers for 1 year or less, and

only 30 percent had 4 or more years of tenure. (See table 11.)

About 17 percent of contract company workers were contingent under the broadest measure and believed that they

could not remain on their current assignment indefinitely. By

ContinuedPercent of persons in alternative and traditional work arrangements with health insurance and pension

Workers with traditional arrangements

Age and sex:

Total, 16 years and older ..................................... 107,689 83.0 60.9 .8 73.4 49.7 56.9

16 to 24 years ................................................ 16,716 67.7 29.9 .2 44.8 14.4 27.1

25 years and older .......................................... 90,973 85.8 66.6 .9 78.7 56.1 62.4

25 to 34 years ............................................. 27,965 80.7 63.8 .6 77.3 47.6 56.9

35 to 44 years ............................................. 29,789 86.5 68.0 .7 80.0 58.9 64.6

45 to 54 years ............................................. 21,596 89.0 70.9 .8 82.0 64.2 68.3

55 years and older ...................................... 11,623 90.3 62.0 2.0 72.9 54.5 58.7

Men ...................................................................... 56,167 82.2 66.1 1.2 75.9 51.8 58.4

Women ................................................................. 51,522 83.8 55.2 .3 70.7 47.3 55.2

Race and Hispanic origin:

White ..................................................................... 90,818 84.1 60.8 .8 73.6 50.0 57.1

Black ...................................................................... 12,263 77.0 62.3 .6 73.4 49.8 57.6

Hispanic origin ....................................................... 10,654 61.8 48.4 .6 60.4 31.2 38.3

Full- and part-time status:

Full-time workers ................................................... 87,685 84.8 70.7 .8 82.7 57.1 64.5

Part-time workers ................................................... 19,757 75.0 17.6 .8 32.5 16.6 23.0

coverage, by selected characteristics, February 1997

Table 14.

Through

other job

or union

Total

(percent)

Eligible for

employerprovided

pension

Through

current

employer

at main job

Characteristic

1Less than 0.05 percent.

2Data not shown where base is less than 75,000.

NOTE: Workers with traditional arrangements are those who do not fall

into any of the “alternative arrangement” categories. Data exclude the

incorporated self-employed. Details for the above race and Hispanic-origin

groups will not sum to totals because data for the “other races” group are not

presented and Hispanics are included in both the white and black population

groups. Details for full- and part-time workers will not sum to totals because

the usual status on the principal job is not identifiable for a small number of

multiple jobholders.

With health insurance coverage

With pension

 coverage,

total

 (percent)

Number

(thousands)

Eligible for

employerprovided

health

insurance
20 Monthly Labor Review November 1998

Workers in Alternative Employment

contrast, the contingency rate for traditional workers was 3.4

percent. (See table 10.) It is perhaps surprising that more than

80 percent of contract company employees believed that they

could remain on their current assignment indefinitely, given

the relatively short tenure of many of the workers in their

current assignment.

(Information on reasons for being in the arrangement and

on the preferred arrangement was not collected for contract company workers, due to the difficulty of devising questions whose

wording would capture the desired information for this group.)

Compensation. Median weekly earnings for contract company

workers employed full time ($619) were higher than earnings

for workers in any other arrangement, including a traditional

one ($510). (See table 12.) There was a large gender gap in earnings among workers in the arrangement, with women earning

64 percent of men’s earnings ($439 versus $685).

With respect to health insurance, the overall rate of coverage for employees of contract companies (82 percent) was

about the same as that for workers in traditional arrangements.

Almost 70 percent of contract company workers were eligible

for employer-provided health insurance, and one-half received

it from their employer, the highest such rates of any alternative arrangement. (See table 14.)

Nearly half of the workers in the arrangement were eligible

for their employer’s pension plan, and 36 percent actually

participated in the plan. While these proportions were lower

than those for traditional workers, they were by far the highest

among the alternative arrangements.

In sum, contract company workers are a small, but wellcompensated, group in which men under the age of 45 are

disproportionately represented.

A NUMBER OF OBSERVERS HAVE BEEN TEMPTED to generalize

about workers in nontraditional types of employment arrangements and to conclude that their existence is evidence of shortcomings in the U.S. labor market.8 The results of the two surveys on alternative arrangements that have been conducted as

part of the CPS, however, suggest the dangers in trying to stereotype the jobs that workers in such arrangements hold.

Of the four alternative arrangements examined in this article, independent contracting dwarfs all the others in size and

is of particular note for several other reasons as well: in general, workers in this arrangement preferred it to a traditional

arrangement, viewed their jobs as permanent, tended to work

full time—many putting in quite long workweeks—and, on

average, were quite highly paid.

In contrast, other arrangements appear to offer less security,

lower pay, or fewer hours than many workers might prefer. But,

perhaps most important, each of the arrangements includes many

workers who responded that they preferred the arrangement, felt

secure in their jobs, and received competitive pay. Thus, it seems

fair to say that there is as much diversity in the characteristics of

jobs and workers within each type of employment arrangement,

whether traditional or otherwise, as there is between different

types of arrangements.

Footnotes

1

 Data from the February 1997 supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS) were initially published as news release USDL 97–422,

“Contingent and alternative employment arrangements, February

1997,” issued Dec. 2, 1997. The CPS, conducted for the Bureau of

Labor Statistics by the Bureau of the Census, is a monthly survey of

some 50,000 households that is the primary source of information on

the labor force. All employed persons, except unpaid family workers,

were eligible for inclusion in the February supplement. The current

article updates two that appeared in the October 1996 Monthly Labor

Review: “Workers in alternative employment arrangements,” by

Sharon R. Cohany, pp. 31–45; and “Earnings and benefits of workers

in alternative work arrangements,” by Steven Hipple and Jay Stewart,

pp. 46–54.

2

 It may be tempting to classify independent contractors who were

identified as wage and salary workers in the main questionnaire as workers

who otherwise would have been employees of their client company or as

individuals who were “converted” to independent contractors to avoid

legal requirements. However, the basic CPS questionnaire does not permit

this distinction. Two individuals who are in exactly the same work arrangement may answer the question from the main questionnaire, “Were

you employed by government, by a private company, a nonprofit organization, or were you self-employed?” differently, depending on their interpretation of the words “employed” and “self-employed.” It was not possible with the CPS supplement to collect information on the legal aspects

of employment arrangements.

3 See two articles by John E. Bregger in the Monthly Labor

Review: “Self-employment in the United States, 1948–62,” January

1963, pp. 37–43; and “Measuring self-employment in the United

States,” January/February 1996, pp. 3–9. See also Theresa J. Devine,

“Characteristics of self-employed women in the United States,” Monthly

Labor Review, March 1994, pp. 20–34.

4

 For a study of firms’ family-oriented policies toward independent

contractors (as well as toward temporary agency workers and direct-hire

temporaries), see Kathleen Christensen, “Countervailing Human Resource Trends in Family-Sensitive Firms,” in Kathleen Barker and

Kathleen Christensen, eds., Contingent Work: American Employment

Relations in Transition (Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 1998). 5

The temporary help industry has been the subject of numerous

studies, including Anne E. Polivka, “Are Temporary Help Agency Workers Substitutes for Direct Hire Temps? Searching for an Alternative

Explanation of Growth in the Temporary Help Industry,” paper presented at the Society of Labor Economists Conference, Chicago, May

3–5, 1996; Lonnie Golden and Eileen Applebaum, “What was Driving

the 1982–88 Boom in Temporary Employment?” American Journal

of Economics and Sociology, October 1992, pp. 473–93; Karylee Laird

and Nicolas Williams, “Empoyment Growth in the Temporary Help

Supply Industry,“Journal of Economic Perspectives, spring 1997, pp.

117–36. For a history of the temporary help industry, see Martha I.

Finney and Deborah A. Dasch, A Heritage of Service: The History of

Temporary Help in America (Alexandria, VA, National Association of

Temporary Services, 1991). For views of the industry primarily from

the temporary workers’ perspective, see Kevin D. Henson, Just a Temp

(Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1996); Jackie Krasas Rogers,

“Just a Temp: Experience and Structure of Alienation in Temporary
Monthly Labor Review November 1998 21

Clerical Employment,” Work and Occupations, May 1995, pp. 137–66;

and Maureen Martella, Just a Temp: Expectations and Experiences of

Women Clerical Temporary Workers, report prepared for the U.S. Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau, November 1991.

6

 Since 1982, data on the temporary help industry have been available

from the Bureau of Labor Statistics through the Current Employment

Statistics (CES) survey, which collects information on employment, hours,

and earnings from employers in nonagricultural industries. Estimates of

employment in the temporary help industry, as measured by the CES, are

considerably higher than CPS-derived estimates, reflecting substantial

differences between the two surveys. For instance, the CES category

“Help supply services” (SIC 7363) includes some contract and employeeleasing companies, in addition to temporary help agencies. In the CES,

multiple jobholders are counted on each payroll; in the CPS, they are

counted on their main job only. Also, in the CES, individuals on multiple

temporary help agency payrolls are counted on each payroll on which

they appeared during the reference week. In the CPS, they are counted

only once. For additional information on these differences, see Cohany,

“Alternative employment arrangements,” pp. 39–40; and Anne E.

Polivka, “Contingent and alternative work arrangements, defined,”

Monthly Labor Review, October 1996, p. 9, footnote 12.

.

.

7

 Recent research on contract companies includes Katharine G.

Abraham and Susan K. Taylor, “Firms’ Use of Outside Contractors:

Theory and Evidence,” Journal of Labor Economics, July 1996, pp.

394–424; and two pieces by Susan N. Houseman: Temporary, Parttime, and Contract Employment: A Report on the W. E. Upjohn

Institute’s Employer Survey on Flexible Staffing Arrangements (U.S.

Department of Labor, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy,

1996); and “Labor Standards in Alternative Work Arrangements,” Proceedings of the 50th Annual Meeting of the Industrial Relations Research Association, vol. 2 (Chicago, Industrial Relations Research Association, 1998), pp. 1135–42.

8

 See, for instance, Arne L. Kalleberg, Edith Rassell, Naomi Cassirer,

Barbara F. Reskin, Ken Hudson, David Webster, Eileen Appelbaum, and

Roberta M. Spalter-Roth, Nonstandard Work, Substandard

Jobs: Flexible Work Arrangements in the U.S. (Washington, DC, Economic Policy Institute and Women’s Research and Education Institute,

1997); and the series of articles in the Mar. 29, 1993, issue of Time

magazine under the general title, “Society: A Nation of PartTimers”: Lance Morrow, “The Temping of America,” pp. 40–41;

Janice Castro, “Disposable Workers,” pp. 43–44; and Robert Reich,

“Nobody Is Safe,” pp. 46–47.