U.S. employers added 52,000 temporary workers last month, marking the fourth consecutive month of increase for temp hiring, The New York Times reports.
The motivation for hiring temps is obvious: “An actual employee with benefits costs more than a temp or a contract worker,” as one employer said, “and as long as I can still get highly skilled temps, I’ll go that route. It gives me more room to reverse course if the economy weakens again and sales do finally sink.”
Still, in previous recessions, permanent workers were added after two or three months of increasing temp hiring.
Do you think that pattern will hold true this time? Is your organization turning to temps more often now? Are you expecting those jobs to become permanent next year?