A temping alternative.

A sluggish economy, combined with rampant corporate downsizing, has opened the floodgates for massive employee layoffs. In turn, this trend has given rise to increased reliance on the burgeoning temporary, part-time and subcontracted work force. Estimates compiled by Office Specialists, a national temporary employment firm that tracks the industry, placed the number of average daily temporary help workers at approximately 1 million (or one out of every 108 nonagricultural segment employees) in 1990. The temporary work force has emerged as a viable bank from which to draw experienced manpower at less cost. Displaced workers have increasingly turned to temp and part-time work as an option to unemployment, while other laborers are voluntarily opting for the variety and flexibility provided by this industry.

NATIONAL POOL OF
DISPLACED WORKERS,
1990
TOTAL (20 years and over)
Number            4,325
(in thousands)
% employed       72.4%
% unemployed     14.0%
% not in labor   13.6%
force(*)
WHITES           Total        Men     Women
Number           3,778        2,311    1,467
(in thousands)
% employed       72.2%        74.8%   68.2%
% unemployed     13.8%        14.7%   12.2%
% not in labor   14.0%        10.5%   19.6%
force(*)
BLACKS           Total        Men     Women
Number             446         242       204
(in thousands)
% employed       72.1%        67.6%   77.4%
% unemployed     15.9%        20.4%   10.5%
% not in labor   12.0%        12.0%   12.1%
force(*)
(*)Those who are neither working nor looking
for employment.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Division
of Labor Force Statistics, Washington, D.C., 1991.