Subtitle: The Temporary Help Industry and Its Workers
Author: Robert E. Parker
Subject: Sociology
Paper ISBN 0-8135-2089-4
Cloth ISBN 0-8135-2036-3
Pages: 187 pp.
Series: The Rose Series of the American Sociological Association

Where do unemployed workers find jobs? Many have turned to the temporary help industry, one of the fastest-growing industries in the nation. Temporary employees now make up one-quarter to one-third of the nation's work force, and they are,

disproportionately, the young, the elderly, minorities, and, most frequently, women. They earn lower wages, receive reduced health care protection, and forfeit pension and retirement benefits. Drawing on many interviews with clerical and industrial "temps," Robert Parker presents a vivid picture of their lives while explaining what this trend toward a cheap, docile, flexible work force implies for the economy and for workers of all kinds.

Robert E. Parker is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. His own experience as a "temp" gave him a first-hand view of the industry.