Coming Soon: Good Times for Temp Workers

Philip Brewer — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:09:05 +0000

During a recession is the worst time to be a temp — whatever work companies have will go to employees, as a way to avoid having to lay them off. Another bad time is the middle of a recovery — things are going so well that managers figure it's safe to hire new permanent employees. Still, there are two good times to look for temp work, and we're coming up on one of them.

One good time to look for temp work is the second half of a period of growth. By that point unemployment is usually low enough that companies are having trouble recruiting new full-time employees, so they turn to temps.

The other good time, though — and this is the one we're approaching — is early in a recovery. When no one is sure that growth will last, companies will resist hiring new permanent employees. But if business is expanding, there's work that needs to get done.

At the very beginning of a recovery, companies will try to squeeze some extra work out of the employees they've got — but that only goes so far. Pretty soon they find that they're losing business because their employees can't get everything done. They need more hands, but are afraid to hire, and that's the point they turn to temps.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics data on "Temporary help services" shows a small uptick started in August (see graph above). It doesn't amount to much yet, but if the economy continues to grow, we may see considerable growth in temp work — growth that will beat the growth in overall employment until employer confidence returns strongly enough that they're ready to start hiring new permanent workers.

Much the same applies to freelance work as well. Employers who need to get work done — but don't want to hire new employees — will turn to freelancers much like they turn to temps.

Let me add one caveat here: I'm not predicting continued growth. It's hard enough to predict the present, let alone the future. The recent past, though, we can be pretty confident of — and the latest statistics show economic growth. The economy could turn back down — in fact it surely will, sooner or later. But, in the meantime, we're coming up on the best environment temps and freelancers have seen in years.

Updated 21 December 2009: The latest BLS numbers are just out and show the surge in temp worker employment is continuing. Here's a graph with the latest data:

This article is from Philip Brewer of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Throwing out your own trash

Philip Brewer — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 11:05:27 +0000

Businesses, especially big businesses, try constantly to shift work from their paid staff to their customers. It's one of the major trends in business today.

Customers are willing to do the work when it saves them money or saves them time. They're delighted to do the work when it makes it easier for them to get exactly what they want--selecting their own fruit at the grocery store versus having a clerk give them a bag that includes one bruised piece that otherwise wouldn't sell.

Business will go to great lengths to get you to do unpaid work (same as to get you to buy stuff in the first place). They'll gladly pretend that it's an "improvement" in service for you to do the work yourself--a claim that's even true sometimes, as when you can look to see if a check has cleared on your bank's website, rather than having to get an employee to look for you. They'll pretend it's more convenient to do it yourself than to wait in line (and then they'll get rid of some employees to make sure that the lines don't get shorter). They'll even try to convince you that doing unpaid work for them is a moral issue.

When I was in sixth grade my elementary school class took a bus trip to Chicago to visit some museums. We brought brown-bag lunches to eat on the way, and before we went our teacher carefully coached us about gathering up our litter and throwing it away, so as not to leave a mess on the bus. When we reached that point, though, the driver used the PA system on the bus to give us alternate instructions.

Finished with your lunch? Put your trash back in your bag. Now, stuff the bag underneath your seat. I know the guy who cleans this bus. He's got a family to support and he needs the work.

That made a huge impression on me, and not just because I'm the sort of lazy person who will seize on any excuse to avoid cleaning up after myself.

When I'm hiking in the wilderness, I'm scrupulous about packing out my own trash. When I'm in a genuine public space--walking on the street or in a park--I use the trash containers provided. But I'm much more dubious about the matter when I'm in an establishment that hires someone to keep the place clean. When I leave my empty popcorn bag on the floor of a movie theater, I figure I'm helping save someone's job.

The general trend is probably unstoppable. There are so many cases where it actually is more convenient to be able to do the work yourself, that the cases where it isn't get a little hard to spot and a little hard to resist.

Economists would have you believe that the free market will take care of the matter: Customers will give their business to whoever provides the best service at the best price. Keep that in mind, when you decide whether to do unpaid labor for the convenience of businesses.

This article is from Philip Brewer of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

labor issues

Coming Soon: Good Times for Temp Workers

Throwing out your own trash