Temp America

Mark Perry notes the steady increase in temporary worker employment and posits that it bodes well for broader employment gains.

MP: Both the ASA Staffing Index and the BLS measure of temporary workers have been trending upward for the last three years and are now close to their pre-recession levels. As leading indicators of overall U.S. labor market demand, these ongoing positive trends in temporary hiring are signs that the labor market is gradually improving and may translate into an increased pace of broader-based hiring for workers going forward into 2013.

I think, however, that mainstream economists (although it would be a bit unfair to call Perry a "mainstream" economist, as that to me is a pejorative term and Perry deserves better) are perhaps missing a structural shift in the labor market towards more temporary employment away from full time employment.  I have labelled this the Robert Half Economy.

Well, we are two years out and we've made, well, er, um, progress if you can call it that. We're not going Galt anymore, we are going Robert Half. Robert Half is, of course, a company that will hook your business up with temporary workers. Judging by this (see #2) it seems that they are busy these days. With Nancy Pelosi defanged, Barack Obama sporting pedestrian approval ratings, and a global economy that decided it couldn't afford to indulge in the progessive rubbish that we Americans foisted on ourselves (here, here, and here), the business climate is looking less awful, so going the full Galt may not be justified. But going the full Milton ain't justified either, after all we are still living with the spectre of the regulatory blobs of ObamaCare and Dodd-Frank, Obama's EPA is in overdrive trying to raise our energy costs, and the rule of law is still being flouted from on high. So how does one make a halting, tentative commitment to the prospect of better times? Hire temps. If Obamacare survives judicial muster (or if Kath Sebelius is ordered to just implement it anyway) or if the economy shows signs of weakness or if another regulatory push seems like it's making traction, as a business operator you'll want to have the flexibility to ratchet back your commitment in a hurry. With temp workers, you just say "bye-bye", no difficult firing procedures, no wrongful termination lawsuits, no pension obligations, no union goons protesting layoffs. Easy peasy Japanesey. Thus, we are now Going Robert Half.