Free Republic

Friday's December jobs report, showing the economy added just 74k jobs last month was itself a major disappointment. Economists had expected the economy to add around 200k jobs. Looking into the details of the report, however, reveals an even bleaker picture of the labor market. Well over half the jobs added in December, 40k, were in temporary employment. The biggest sectors to see job growth in December were retail and wholesale trade, in addition to temporary services. Together, these sectors added over 100k jobs, meaning the rest of the economy shed jobs last month. Temporary jobs are obviously just that...

Hiring is exploding in the one corner of the U.S. economy where few want to be hired: Temporary work. From Wal-Mart to General Motors to PepsiCo, companies are increasingly turning to temps and to a much larger universe of freelancers, contract workers and consultants. Combined, these workers number nearly 17 million people who have only tenuous ties to the companies that pay them—about 12 percent of everyone with a job. Hiring is always healthy for an economy. Yet the rise in temp and contract work shows that many employers aren't willing to hire for the long run. … Driving the...