Flexible recession: the temporary staffing industry and mediated work in the United States

Abstract

The evolution of the temporary staffing industry (TSI) in the US is examined, with particular reference to the structural functions of temporary work during the boom of the 1990s, the ‘flexible’ recession of 2001, and the subsequent ‘jobless’ recovery. It is argued that the TSI is increasingly playing a systemic, macroregulatory role in the US labour market, where it now accounts for a disproportionate share of the costs of labour-market adjustment. The development path of the TSI is closely intertwined with the wider restructuring of the US economy, where it has assumed a significant presence as a purveyor of low-cost, flexibly mediated labour.