Part-Time Work

Report Outline
Special Focus

Overview

They are known by a variety of names—moonlighters, temporaries, part-timers, free-lancers, and leased or contract workers. Whatever their label, the American workers who hold less than full-time employment constitute a closely watched sector of the nation's labor force, accounting for almost a fifth of the total. As service industries—where part-time work is more prevalent than in manufacturing—take on the role of “job machine” for the U.S. economy, experts are wondering what the future holds for workers, whose careers and lifestyles could be fundamentally altered if part-time work became an integral part of the American work place. Some experts think there are signs that such a trend is under way.

For example, the morning newspaper, once delivered by the next-door neighbor's child, may now be carried instead by an adult part-timer. According to the International Circulation Managers Association, about 72 percent of the nation's newspaper companies currently engage the services of adult independent contractors who buy the papers at wholesale and then establish and collect their own delivery fees. Elsewhere, male and female “temps” placed by Kelly Services, one of the giants of the temporary work industry, today do everything from product demonstration to telemarketing. In an earlier era, when the firm went by the name of Kelly Girl Services Inc., its workers were primarily women engaged in such tasks as clerical work, stenography, bookkeeping and accounting.

This is the first of two reports on employment trends. Next week's report is on small business.