Temporary Jobs Have Become Order of the Day

With the pension-providing employer having retired by the sixties, and the permanent employer-employee relationship gone to the dogs this recession, temporary jobs have come to stay as mainstream alternatives for many previous office-goers.

While statistics shows the unemployment rate plummeting earthward, the definition of what counts as a job has changed radically, and the American dream has gone from multicolor to black and white. Stark realities have forced both employers and employees to change age-old perceptions and admit a mercenary relationship as more flexible and more realistic in post-recession workplaces. At least a quarter of the people who found jobs since the recession are working in temporary jobs that do not qualify as permanent employment.

As ‘hire and fire’ remains the premise of employers, ‘take and leave’ has become the premise of employees who do not see a life-long partnership in workplaces any more. Traditional jobs are on the way out with the rise in freelancing, part-time, and temporary job contracts.

For professionals with the required skills, continual job-hopping to ensure presence at the best accessible workplace has become the norm. When the employer is not ready to sacrifice his Venice vacation, workers can hardly be expected to sacrifice the time of their lives doing charity for profit-making organizations.

Reflecting the situation, the number of U.S. temporary help jobs rose by 20,100 in January to approximately 2.4 million as per seasonally adjusted numbers released by the BLS.

However, the question is that out of the 257000 jobs gained by the private sector in January, how many were jobs in the pre-recession definition, and how many were jobs with only temporary commitment.

Statistics continue to look good, but for those whose last checks of extended UI have started to arrive, and those who are stigmatized by long employment.

There are job advertisements that clearly state ‘unemployed’ need not apply, and others do it more subtly by requiring candidates to be currently employed in order to be eligible for new jobs.

A minority of 4 million people have grown up in the backyard who are discriminated against in the workplace and recruitment arena, simply because they have failed to get a job for long.

Under the circumstances, workers are hardly to be blamed if they prefer freelancer positions, or positions of external consultants than deciding to give their lives in installments of eight hours for employers who care neither about their present nor about their future.