Survey: Temp Employment to Grow Faster Than All Jobs Through 2025

4 Nov, 2019

Forty-two percent of people picking up temporary work take on at least two gigs per week and new research shows they will have even more opportunities to choose from. Temporary Help Services is the largest category of gig employment and serves as a bellwether for broader growth trends. A study by TrueBlue and Emsi projects that Temporary Help Services employment will grow to more than 3.2 million jobs by 2025, an increase of nearly 254,000 jobs (8.5 percent) from 2019. This compares to 6 percent growth for all U.S. jobs from 2019 to 2025.

The study is based on Emsi’s data, which is aggregated from state and federal employment sources. The analysis focuses on Temporary Help Services workers who are employed by companies as well as self-employed.

Key Findings:

• Temporary employment has been growing steadily for the last several years as the U.S. recovered from the last recession. Nearly 480,000 jobs were added from 2012 to 2019 with companies seeking more flexibility in how they staff and workers seeking greater control over when and where they work.

• While temporary employment is relatively balanced among age groups, the majority (57 percent) of people working temporary assignments, or gigs, are ages 35 and older; 18 percent are ages 55 and older. The number one reason why people say they want to take on gig work is to earn extra income followed by the desire to get their foot in the door with a company.2

o 24 and younger – 16 percent

o 25 to 34 – 27 percent

o 35 to 44 – 21 percent

o 45 to 54 – 18 percent

o 55 and older – 18 percent

• Los Angeles, CA (adding 13,466 jobs), Dallas, TX (+13,435 jobs), Chicago, IL (+12,944 jobs), Grand Rapids, MI (+8,997 jobs) and New York, NY (+8,718 jobs) are the top five metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) projected to add the largest number of temporary jobs from 2019 to 2025.

• Supply chain-related jobs continue to dominate the list of fastest-growing temporary occupations from production to transportation and customer service.

“How companies and people look at work is different today, likely inspired by the memories of a casualty-ridden recession and the emergence of new technologies that make it easy to connect in real time for on-demand employment needs,” said Patrick Beharelle, CEO of TrueBlue. “Gig employment will continue to grow in popularity as more companies choose to reduce fixed labor costs to stay nimble and workers gravitate toward flexible work experiences that fit their lifestyles.”

“The labor market continues to be tight, and businesses are using many avenues to find the talent to keep their competitive edge,” said Rob Sentz, Emsi’s chief innovation officer. “This analysis indicates that gigs and other forms of temporary employment are a viable way for people to enter the labor market and for companies to quickly locate talent.”

The fastest-growing temporary occupations from 2019 to 2025 include:

Occupation	Temporary Employment 2019	Temporary Employment 2025	Temporary Employment Growth 2019 to 2025
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand	544.450	598,077	53,627 10%
Helpers – Production Workers	96,191	120,900	24,709 26%
Packers and Packagers, Hand	124,098	136,565	12,467 10%
Industrial Truck and Tractor Operators	57,429	62,958	5,529 10%
Human Resources Specialists	54,746	60,156	5,410 10%
Stock Clerks and Order Fillers	47,951	52,613	4,662 10%
Office Clerks, General	118,404	123,016	4,612 4%
Packaging and Filling Machine Operators and Tenders	46,843	51,356	4,513 10%
Registered Nurses	45,155	49,637	4,482 10%
Construction Laborers	44,767	49,120	4,353 10%
Substitute Teachers	40,318	44,375	4,056 10%
Janitors and Cleaners, Except Maids and Housekeeping Cleaners	40,813	44,807	3,994 10%
Customer Service Representatives	91,746	95,475	3,729 4%
Software Developers, Applications	20,902	24,150	3,248 16%

^{1 and 2}TrueBlue’s October 2019 survey of more than 4,000 U.S. gig workers.

Industry

Survey: Temp Employment to Grow Faster Than All Jobs Through 2025

4 Nov, 2019

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