Temporary Agency Workers in Italy: Alternative Techniques of Classification

The cluster analysis and the classification trees technique are applied to investigate the relationship between the individual characteristics of the Italian THA (temporary help agency) workers and their probability to achieve a temporary job. The application aims to show some advantages of these techniques with respect to the traditional econometric tools. The sketches of the most common profiles among Italian THA workers are obtained as a result. Besides the typical THA worker pointed out by previous studies (young male workers, with medium-high educational level, living in the Northern regions), two new profiles have been identified: the first composed by male manual workers with previous job experience, whose average age is over 30 and whose educational level is low; the second is composed by young female workers with medium-high educational level, working in the services or in the public sector. The results are compared to the more usual logit analysis and show their robustness.