IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v12y1998i4p655-674.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Business of Contingent Work: Growth and Restructuring in Chicago's Temporary Employment Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Jamie Peck

    (International Centre for Labour Studies at Manchester University)

  • Nikolas Theodore

    (Manchester University, Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago)

Abstract

The `temp' industry is one of the fastest-growing employment sectors in the United States, though relatively little is known about the operations of its key institutional agents - the temp agencies themselves. In the paper, the restructuring of the temp industry and the role of temporary help agencies as `labour market intermediaries' is critically examined. It is argued that not only is the industry growing at a rapid rate, it is also polarising, as some agencies `restructure down' into the lowest-paid and most exploitative niches of the labour market - where employment instability is a daily phenomenon, while others `restructure up' into increasingly long-term relationships - including `on-site' management deals and `insourcing' agreements - with major corporate clients. Likewise, `temping' is not only becoming more commonplace, but the labour-market and workplace experiences of temporary workers are becoming increasingly heterogeneous. It is apparently in the nature of the industry that both these developments are scarcely `visible', as restructuring down is often associated with `backstreet operators', undocumented workers and unregulated work, while restructuring up draws agencies into increasingly seamless, reflexive and internalised relationships with corporations. The paper traces some of the labour market and organisational implications of these restructuring practices through an examination of the long-established but newly-vibrant temp industry in Chicago.

Suggested Citation

  • Jamie Peck & Nikolas Theodore, 1998. "The Business of Contingent Work: Growth and Restructuring in Chicago's Temporary Employment Industry," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 12(4), pages 655-674, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:12:y:1998:i:4:p:655-674
    DOI: 10.1177/0950017098124004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0950017098124004
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0950017098124004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lewis M. Segal & Daniel G. Sullivan, 1995. "The temporary labor force," Economic Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, vol. 19(Mar), pages 2-19.
    2. Lonnie Golden & Eileen Appelbaum, 1992. "What Was Driving the 1982–88 Boom In Temporary Employment?," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(4), pages 473-493, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matthew Dey & Susan Houseman & Anne Polivka, 2010. "What Do We Know About Contracting Out in the United States? Evidence from Household and Establishment Surveys," NBER Chapters, in: Labor in the New Economy, pages 267-304, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Marcello Estevao & Saul Lach, 1999. "Measuring temporary labor outsourcing in U.S. manufacturing," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 1999-57, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    3. Genevieve Giuliano, 1998. "Information Technology, Work Patterns and Intra-metropolitan Location: A Case Study," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 35(7), pages 1077-1095, June.
    4. Jeffrey B. Wenger & Arne L. Kalleberg, 2006. "Employers’ Flexibility and Employment Volatility," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(2), pages 347-382, April.
    5. repec:jle:journl:173 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Machiel van Dijk & Machiel Mulder, 2005. "Regulation of telecommunication and deployment of broadband," CPB Memorandum 131.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    7. Adam Seth Litwin & Sherry M. Tanious, 2021. "Information Technology, Business Strategy and the Reassignment of Work from In‐House Employees to Agency Temps," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 59(3), pages 816-847, September.
    8. Coen N. Teulings & Nikolay Zubanov, 2014. "Is Economic Recovery A Myth? Robust Estimation Of Impulse Responses," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(3), pages 497-514, April.
    9. Jamie Peck & Nik Theodore, 2007. "Flexible recession: the temporary staffing industry and mediated work in the United States," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 31(2), pages 171-192, March.
    10. Lewis M. Segal & Daniel G. Sullivan, 1997. "The Growth of Temporary Services Work," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 11(2), pages 117-136, Spring.
    11. Yukako Ono & Daniel Sullivan, 2013. "Manufacturing Plants' Use of Temporary Workers: An Analysis Using Census Microdata," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 419-443, April.
    12. repec:dgr:tudemi:20101 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Corinne Perraudin & Nadine Thevenot & Bruno Tinel & Julie Valentin, 2006. "Sous-traitance dans l'industrie et ineffectivité du droit du travail : une analyse économique," Post-Print halshs-00265959, HAL.
    14. Surfield, Christopher & Welch, William, 2009. "Atypical Work and Employment Regulations: A Comparison of Right-to-Work to Closed-Shop States," MPRA Paper 14462, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Kvasnicka, Michael & Werwatz, Axel, 2002. "On the wages of temporary help service workers in Germany," SFB 373 Discussion Papers 2002,70, Humboldt University of Berlin, Interdisciplinary Research Project 373: Quantification and Simulation of Economic Processes.
    16. David H. Autor, 2000. "Outsourcing at Will: Unjust Dismissal Doctrine and the Growth of Temporary Help Employment," NBER Working Papers 7557, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Belot, Michèle & Boone, Jan & van Ours, Jan C, 2002. "Welfare Effects of Employment Protection," CEPR Discussion Papers 3396, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. Marcello M. Estevao & Saul Lach, 1999. "The Evolution of the Demand for Temporary Help Supply Employment in the United States," NBER Working Papers 7427, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Lewis M. Segal & Daniel G. Sullivan, 1998. "Wage differentials for temporary services work: evidence from administrative data," Working Paper Series WP-98-23, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    20. Corinne Perraudin & Nadine Thevenot & Bruno Tinel & Julie Valentin, 2006. "Sous-traitance dans l'industrie et ineffectivité du droit du travail : une analyse économique," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00265959, HAL.
    21. Lee Byoung-Hoon & Stephen J. Frenkel, 2004. "Divided Workers," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 18(3), pages 507-530, September.
    22. Ferber, Marianne A., 1999. "Introduction," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 579-595.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:12:y:1998:i:4:p:655-674. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.