Temporary employees, by sex and age

Three in 10 temporary employees are young people

• Temporary employment continues to be predominant among youth aged 15 to 24 years. In 2003, 29% of youth employees had a temporary job, compared with 9% of adult employees aged 25 to 54. The share of temporary employment among young people peaked at 31% in 2001 and then declined in the following two years, but remained higher in 2003 than in 1997.
• Over 1 in 10 employees aged 55 years and over (11%) had a temporary job in 2003, and this rate had remained stable since 2000, but is slightly up from 1997. However, because of the growing senior population, the number of older workers with a temporary job almost doubled within the past six years to 150,000.
• Only a slightly higher proportion of women had a temporary job than men (13% versus 12%) in 2003, a pattern consistent throughout the 1997 to 2003 period.

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