Seeking stability in unstable employment: An exploratory study of temporary agency workers' career self-management

Increasingly dynamic labor markets have caused a steep increase in nonstandard workers. This study focuses on agency temps who work via market intermediaries at client organizations. The short-term and frequently changing nature of their jobs creates uncertainty about employment personal stability. Based an explorative qualitative interview among 27 temps, we studied how self-manage careers. Our reveals that the precarious career environment financial dependence make temps' self-management different from existing depictions literature. Specifically, reveal engagement is relatively primarily reactive. We find they focus survival stability as goals, engage four behaviors: (1) moonlighting, (2) self-profiling, (3) compensatory behavior, (4) job search behavior. Subsequently, identify two negative long-term outcomes these being locked-in experiencing resource loss during unemployment. Accordingly, this contributes to nascent literature temporary by identifying behaviors consequences volatile context. findings can help counselors policy-makers safeguard temps.