Contracting Is The New Normal: NPR/Marist Poll

The U.S. economy is posting solid growth and the stock market is booming. The unemployment rate is approaching historic lows. And yet many in the American workforce are not seeing the benefits of it, according to a new NPR/Marist Poll. The new poll finds that while jobs are plentiful, they are increasingly unstable for many Americans who say they receive fewer benefits, work with less permanency, and earn uneven pay from month to month.

Key Findings:

  • 20% of all American workers are contract workers (Those who are hired to work on a specific project or for a fixed period of time.)

  • 51% of contract workers don't receive benefits from their jobs.

  • 49% of contract workers have income that varies greatly from month to month or seasonally.

  • 65% of contract workers are male and 62% are under 45 years of age.

Christine Haskell, PHD has built her practice on credible, published research and data. In the Research Series, you’ll find highlights, shareable statistics, and links to the full source material.

94 percent of the jobs added to the economy from 2005 to 2015 were giggers

Abstract: To monitor trends in alternative work arrangements, we conducted a version of the Contingent Worker Survey as part of the RAND American Life Panel in late 2015. The findings point to a significant rise in the incidence of alternative work arrangements in the U.S. economy from 2005 to 2015. The percentage of workers engaged in alternative work arrangements – defined as temporary help agency workers, on-call workers, contract workers, and independent contractors or freelancers – rose from 10.7 percent in February 2005 to 15.8 percent in late 2015. The percentage of workers hired out through contract companies showed the largest rise, increasing from 1.4 percent in 2005 to 3.1 percent in 2015. Workers who provide services through online intermediaries, such as Uber or Task Rabbit, accounted for 0.5 percent of all workers in 2015. About twice as many workers selling goods or services directly to customers reported finding customers through offline intermediaries than through online intermediaries.

Christine Haskell, PHD has built her practice on credible, published research and data. In the Research Series, you’ll find highlights, shareable statistics, and links to the full source material.