Long-Term Temps are Becoming More Prevalent

Companies traditionally have hired temporary workers to get through seasonal upswings in business or projects that require additional staff just for the projects' duration. Increasingly, however, companies and government entities are hiring temps but keeping them on indefinitely. These "permatemp" workers remain employees of their staffing agencies but work in their places of employment for years, not just weeks or months.

Although the manufacturing industry hires the most temporary workers, USA Today notes that it is increasingly common for employers to hire such professional service providers as attorneys, doctors, nurses and technology specialists to fill temporary roles. As of 2013, about 12 percent of all workers were temporary workers, and their numbers increased 50 percent in the first four years following the recession. According to USA Today, 75 percent of the economists surveyed by the Associated Press see this rise as a trend rather than an anomaly.

The Center for a Changing Workforce, an organization that researches and analyzes employment and benefit issues that affect low-wage and nontraditional workers, reiterates that permatemp workers "work in every industry, in nearly all occupations." The problem, as the organization sees it, is that for many of these workers, "temporary" is a misnomer. The center stresses that mislabeled temporary workers are at risk of exploitation because they're frequently denied the pay and benefits enjoyed by the permanent employees with whom they work.

The increase in mischaracterized temps is creating a backlash in both the private and public sectors. In California, for example, 2014 saw lawmakers pushing legislation that would protect workers by making employers partly responsible for staffing agencies' improper practices regarding salary, benefits and safety, according to the Los Angeles Times. The legislation models laws in effect or in the works in Massachusetts and Illinois, which acknowledge that keeping temporary workers on permanently harms everyone, the exploited workers and the companies and government offices that pay staffing agencies a premium for the temporary workers they bring on.

A less frequently cited problem with using temporary workers is that the practice can cause morale issues in the workplace. Employers that fail to offer adequate training and support create a situation in which the temps find it difficult to adjust, and permanent employees remain on edge and uncertain about their own futures. These issues are exacerbated when the temporary workers are kept on for the long term.

Temporary workers are an important part of the workforce. When hired for truly temporary positions, by staffing agencies that pay fair wages and offer benefits similar to those that employers offer their own employees, the arrangement can work well for everyone involved. However, when permanent workers are classified as temporary workers by employers looking to save money or circumvent budget problems and hiring freezes, everyone stands to lose.

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