Producing Precarity

The Temporary Staffing Agency in the Labor Market

Bibliographic Data

ID4245233
AuthorsEmine Fidan Elcioglu (0000-0001-5161-8298)
Year2010
Volume33
Issue2
Pages117-136
Publication date2010-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueQualitative Sociology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0162-0436 • E-ISSN: 1573-7837
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s11133-010-9149-x
OpenAlexW2167246274
LanguageEN
Citations received32
References cited23

On the basis of fieldwork in a temporary staffing agency (TSA), I argue that while temp agencies may provide transitional mobility for jobseekers, in the long run the TSA systematically exploits and reproduces structural vulnerability in the labor market. The agency creates a core of permanent temporary workers separate from the periphery of surplus workers, such that the former is given priority in job allocation. The staffing agency can use alliances with institutions such as private correctional facilities to control its peripheral workers. At the same time, highly valued core workers also face precarious conditions when they are barred from job mobility and their wages are capped. The agency further reinforces precariousness during the moment of work by extending the agency’s surveillance to client sites

Agency (philosophy · Business · Computer security · Economics · Labor relations · Labour economics · Management · Market economy · Precarious work · Precarity · Secondary labor market · Sociology · Split labor market theory · Staffing · Temporary work · Vulnerability (computing · Work (physics · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Employment and Welfare Studies · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access