Today’s Topic

Call them temporary workers, part-timers, freelancers, contractors or contingent workers. Whatever they are called, most experts agree, they are the fastest-growing segment of the American work force.

Yet, even the government agency that is supposed to compile the numbers--the Bureau of Labor Statistics in Washington--can’t say exactly how many people are working outside the traditional job market that guarantees a full-time salary and health, vacation and retirement benefits.

The best indicator, says bureau economist Randy Ilg, is to look at the growing numbers of agencies offering part-time or temporary help. In fact, recent figures indicate that the nation’s largest private employer is the Milwaukee-based temporary agency Manpower Inc.

Since there is such a broad spectrum of workers taking on temporary employment--secretaries, computer programmers, janitors, writers, engineers and graphic designers, to name just a few--it is nearly impossible to draw overall conclusions about this growing trend.

“There are pluses and minuses,” says Barry Glassner, chairman of USC’s sociology department. “Many people who in other times would have had full-time employment with promotion possibilities and benefits can now only find temporary work where none of those goodies are included. “On the positive side, temporary work has made it possible for people to make major career transitions and move out of a work situation with which they are unhappy,” says Glassner, author of a book (titled “Career Crash”) on Baby Boomer employment crises.

In a new Voices feature, Working People, temporary employee Philip Leslie talks about the negatives of temporary work: the indignity of providing a service without full-time benefits, the lack of respect from fellow workers and the lack of appreciation from employers.

Those negatives appear to be most visible for people, mostly women, who provide secreterial or janitorial services, the experts say.

“People employing temporary workers will tell you this is the greatest thing for women in the workplace because it offers them flexibility and a job where they make money right away,” says Maripat Blankenheim, spokesperson for the Milwaukee-based advocacy group Nine to Five. “In actuality, studies show the majority of women working as temporary workers do so because there is nothing else they can get,” Blankenheim adds. “There is no job security, health care benefits, paid sick care or vacation. How many people are going to be happy with that?”

There is little doubt that the numbers of temporary workers will keep growing, partly to reduce employee lawsuits and the burden of protective laws that often don’t apply to contractors or temps.

“The more legislation you have to protect employees, the more there will be a move toward using contractors,” says Jone Pearce, a management professor at UC Irvine’s Graduate School of Management. “A lot of companies are seeking to free themselves from those legislative constraints.”