IES Blog

Randstad flexible labor survey results

Posted on June 4th, 2013 Read time: 1 minutes

Randstad released a report yesterday on flexible labor and employment, the first edition of what will be an annual study called Flexibility@work. For the purpose of the study, flexible labor and employment encompasses increasing a workforce by "employing workers on fixed-term contracts, hiring workers through temporary employment agencies or by hiring labor services from self-employed workers."

In its abstract, the report concludes that "There is no clear evidence that the strong growth in the share of flexible labor relations between 2002 and 2007 points at a worldwide trend towards a large share of flexible labor at the expense of traditional open-ended labor contracts." In other words, the growth of flexible labor did not harm existing traditional jobs. Rather, flexible labor grew on its own, and sometimes impressively. Temporary workers benefited from this growth. As the report says, agency work specifically "has shown a structural growth beyond the regular business cycle."

Opportunities for contract workers are growing not because of a lack of open-ended contract jobs, but independently of them. This points to an increasing recognition among employers of the value of flexible labor and employment, and that recognition appears to be here to stay.

Related Articles