The Decline of the Temporary Worker: A Regional Perspective

Abstract

Employment of temporary workers has been affected by new legislation in 2002 and the stabilisation of the economy in the early 21st century. These factors are hypothesised to reduce the overall level of temporary employment in the UK economy. To confirm this hypothesis, data from 28 Labour Force Survey (LFS) studies carried out between the periods of December 1997 and November 2004 were analysed alongside turnover data for the Employment Agency Industry. The results revealed a reduction of over a quarter of a million temporary workers in the UK Economy over 6 years. Qualitative interviews with ten large temporary worker employers confirmed that legislation and employers’ preference for permanent workers reduced the demand for temporary workers. Nonetheless, regional differences were apparent with some regions such as Northern Ireland and Wales increasing their employment of temporary workers.

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the help of Roger Tweedy (Recruitment and Employment Confederation) for supplying me with the employment agency industry turnover data, Carmel Biggs, Brendan Burchell (University of Cambridge) and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on this paper. I am also indebted to the Labour Market Division, Office for National Statistics and the UK Data Archive. I would also like to thank all the interviewees for giving up their time for the qualitative study.