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Temporary employment sector remains lucrative despite recession

Posted on April 12th, 2011 Read time: 1 minutes

According to Lohud.com, the percentage of temporary workers in the U.S. workforce has been climbing slowly but surely.

The news source notes that the total number of workers who hold temp positions currently totals 2.2 million, which is up 12 percent from a year ago.

It has been one of the few employment sectors that scored month-to-month job growth, and according to the U.S. Labor Department, accounted for at least 80 percent of jobs created in the private sector during certain months in 2010.  

The tight economy has also resulted in some workers having to temper their employment expectations.

"We see people who've been paid pretty big dollars who are temporary," Katherine O'Connor, president of Brooke Street Staffing, told the media outlet. "It's been so dry for so long, we've seen people with pretty good degrees doing service jobs. Very high-end temps doing data entry, customer service or reception because it's a job."

In Japan, temporary workers make up the majority of the staff members who are required to work at nuclear power plants for employers like the Tokyo Electric Power Company, according to the Sacramento Bee.

The media outlet adds that of the roughly 83,000 workers at Japan's 18 commercial nuclear power plants, 88 percent were contract workers. 

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