Temporary Help Service Industry: Its Role, Structure and Growth - ARCHIVED

Temporary help is an integral part of the workforce strategy of many businesses. Temporary help workers may be on the payroll of the organization where they work or they may be employees of the firms in personnel supplier industry, placed in the organization under contract.

The study is an analysis of the personnel supplier industry, commonly known as the temporary help industry. The paper begins with a discussion of the special nature of the industry's product. The role of temporary help in the labour market is compared to just-in-time inventory technology in material handling and bridge financing in the financial markets. It then analyzes the industry's structure in terms of occupations and skill levels, degree of specialization and its determinants, competition at the industry and product levels, major markets and trade. Finally, the growth and cycles in the industry are analyzed in terms of the business demographics, highlighting the effect of firm size and vintage.