America's Second-largest Employer Is a Temp Agency

cold fjord writes "From the Examiner: '...the second-largest employer in America is Kelly Services, a temporary work provider. ... part-time jobs are at an all-time high, with 28 million Americans now working part-time. ... There are now a record number of Americans with temporary jobs. Approximately 2.7 million, in fact. And the trend has been growing. ... Temp jobs made up about 10 percent of the jobs lost during the Great Recession, but now make up a tenth of the jobs in the United States. In fact, nearly one-fifth of all jobs gained since the recession ended have been temporary.' The NYT has a chart detailing the problem."

Re:Corporate executives are smart.

[bryguy5]

Mod parent up. The intended effect was to give minimum wage employees free healthcare but the actual affect is to reduce their hours from 40 hrs a week + overtime to a strict less than 30 hours a huge paycut for a group that was living pay check to pay check as it was.

CITATION NEEDED

[Antipater]

In fact, nearly one-fifth of all jobs gained since the recession ended have been temporary.'

What in the what? I'd REALLY like to see a source on that, given that it's directly contradicted by the BLS.
http://www.bls.gov/webapps/legacy/cpsatab9.htm [bls.gov]
Since the job market bottomed, we've created 5.4 million full-time jobs and 600,000 part-time jobs. How is that "nearly one-fifth"?

Re:CITATION NEEDED

[Anonymous Coward]

You're assuming full-time == permanent,
and
temp== part-time

neither of which is necessarily true.

Re:lack of unions and workers rights

[KermodeBear]

Speaking of workers rights... Can anyone explain to me why "Computer Professionals" are specifically exempted from overtime pay [dol.gov]? Why is my overtime less valuable than someone else's overtime?

Let me guess: Is it because some large IT firm slipped substantial campaign contributions to the right legislative whores?

Re:Corporate executives are smart.

[Anonymous Coward]

Obamacare is a Republican idea.

Yes, that's why it originated from that well-known Republican state, Massachusetts. No, wait, that's not right.

Now I know Obama wanted desperately to pin the MA health clusterfuck on Romney, but the reality is that the self-infected health care debacle MA created was thanks to their Democrat dominated legislature. The health care mandate was a last-ditch attempt to allow people to keep some degree of choice in their health care, rather than throwing everything into the control of the government.

Liberals originally wanted single-payer system like that found in most civilized countries.

Completely false. Obamacare was passed with Dems having a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and having control of the House. If they wanted single-payer, they would have made single-payer. They wanted Obamacare instead, as a hand-out to their friends in the health care industry.

Re:Corporate executives are smart.

[kenaaker]

The original version of the healthcare plan was written 15-20 years ago, including the mandate, by the Heritage Foundation, well known as a pinko-commie-lib think tank. (For the mouth-breathers out there, that's a joke). Go look for other Heritage Foundation proposals and see what you think.

Re:Corporate executives are smart.

[kenaaker]

So why do most of the other countries in the developed world, that do have universal health care, deliver better overall health care outcomes for 60% less (10% of GDP) than the current US system (16% of GDP)?

Re:Corporate executives are smart.

[TheSync]

why do most of the other countries in the developed world, that do have universal health care, deliver better overall health care outcomes for 60% less

Because they pay their doctors less [forbes.com]. When government is the primary employer or leading negotiator with physicians, they can't bargain much.

The bottom line is: U.S. doctors charge 2x-3x the fees received by their peers in France and Germany

But of course doctors in those other countries do sometimes go on strike [businessweek.com].

Re:Corporate executives are smart.

[Anonymous Coward]

Healthcare got rammed through? The health care plan as written by the right wing Heritage Foundation and previously implemented in Massachusetts by Governor Romney? That Republicans stalled, limited, and forced further to the right at every opportunity just so the majority could bring it to an up or down vote?

Re:lack of unions and workers rights

[Anonymous Coward]

Done both, the food service industry and computer hacking. 16 hours a day on your feet in the food service industry takes a severe toll on your body.

On the other hand, 16+ hours a day, for months or years on end, writing software is just plain lethal. Anybody telling you different is lying! Between the lack of decent food, the inability to shop for groceries, the chronic starvation, the chronic sleep deprivation to the point of hallucinations, the destruction of my body's immune system... It's a really bad deal.

Sad thing is, I found I could take a desk job as a security guard and make more money than writing software. I needed two jobs, but I work far fewer hours than I used to and it's all just sitting around reading books.

Welcome to America.

The image accompanying this article says it all

[Y-Crate]

Link [nytimes.com]

...in 1971 the recently renamed Kelly Services ran a series of ads in The Office, a human resources journal, promoting the “Never-Never Girl,” who, the company claimed: “Never takes a vacation or holiday. Never asks for a raise. Never costs you a dime for slack time. (When the workload drops, you drop her.) Never has a cold, slipped disc or loose tooth. (Not on your time anyway!) Never costs you for unemployment taxes and Social Security payments. (None of the paperwork, either!) Never costs you for fringe benefits. (They add up to 30% of every payroll dollar.) Never fails to please. (If your Kelly Girl employee doesn’t work out, you don’t pay.)”

You're not a person. You're not an employee. You're not even worthy of respect.

Single-Payer Healthcare can help resolve this

[damn_registrars]

I know this will not be a popular opinion here - and I will likely be moderated into oblivion for even daring to suggest it on this right-leaning site - but seriously a single-payer healthcare system could do a lot to resolve this problem. There are a large number of people in this country who seek out full-time work not because they want to work 40 hours or because they even want to live the lifestyle of a full-timer, but because it is the only way to get health care (and don't try to claim that the health insurance bailout act called "obamacare" changes this in a meaningful way, because it really doesn't). There are plenty of people who would take a 25% pay cut to work 30 hours if they could still get health care, but the vast majority of employers in this country won't allow it. There are others who would work fewer hours and then take the time difference to pursue an education or vocational training (and are hence instead stuck in a dead end position because they have lost that flexibility). There are even some who would take two part-time jobs to accommodate their scheduling needs, but again can't do it because of health care.

These people won't be served by the current system, or any system that has been proposed in the past two decades. These people would also make jobs available by leaving full time positions, which would help those who seek full-time employment currently.

But instead our "main stream media" has told us such things are "un-American" and "communist". Why will we never get single-payer health care in the US? The same reason we'll never get solar power or a manned mission to Mars; people make more money on the current system than changing it to anything else.

I've already put on my fucking asbestos. Flame away.