Into contingent and alternative employment: by choice?

Workers enter contingent and alternative arrangements from many different activities and for a wide variety of reasons; while some workers are involuntarily in such arrangements, as a proportion of the employed, they are relatively few R ecent reports of corporate downsizing, the growth of temporary help agencies, and the phenomenon of " outsourcing " have fueled the perception that the number of contingent workers and workers in alternative work arrangements is increasing. In addition to participating in debates over the number of workers in such arrangements, economists are interested in the long-run effects of these arrangements on individuals' employment patterns and labor market behavior. Some have argued that being a contingent worker or being in an alternative work arrangement consigns a person to the bottom of the economic ladder, where the worker experiences frequent job changes and has little economic security and no hope of economic advancement. 1 Further, proponents of this position argue that, as a result of the apparent growth in the number of contingent workers and those working in alternative work arrangements, the economic hardship associated with these types of jobs is increasing. Others argue, by contrast, that contingent employment and alternative work arrangements offer individuals pathways into the labor market that they otherwise would not have, as well as flexibility that helps them balance work with other, non-labor-market obligations. Without contingent work and alternative work arrangements , these observers insist, individuals with poor access to jobs or with conflicting needs would either be unemployed or drop out of the labor force altogether. 2 Proponents of these types of work arrangements also go so far as to argue that some alternative work arrangements, such as temporary help service employment, offer individuals more stable employment and greater chances for upward job mobility than they would be able to obtain on their own. 3 Implicit in the discussion of the growth of contingent and alternative work arrangements and their effect on in-dividuals' labor market prospects is the notion that the job market has undergone a fundamental shift in the last several years. The importance of internal labor markets, it is argued, has declined, and employers have altered the ways they hire and fire workers. 4 Using data from the February 1995 supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS) on contingent workers and workers in alternative work arrangements, this article explores the effect of such employment arrangements on individuals' positions …