94% of job growth since 2005 is temporary

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, according to a Princeton study.

“We found that 94% of net job growth in the past decade was in the alternative work category,” said Princeton economist Alan Krueger.

“And over 60% was due to the [the rise] of independent contractors, freelancers and contract company workers.” In other words, nearly all of the 10 million jobs created between 2005 and 2015 were not traditional nine-to-five employment.

Krueger was surprised by the finding.

His original goal was to quantify the size of the gig economy and was caught off guard by the tremendous growth of alternative work.

There had been almost no change from 1995 to 2005.

The American work environment is rapidly changing, the days of the conventional full-time job may be numbered.

With more of the workforce working with/for multiple companies – and given this number will only increase – we need to ask what this means for the safety and protection of companies. What role will employment screening play?

No doubt, it will be more important than ever. Here are a few areas to consider:

Regulations

This is a brand new landscape and regulations are struggling to keep up. Companies such as Uber and Lyft have faced a multitude of lawsuits over the last few years as local governments try to understand who plays what role in ensuring the safety of the consumer using these products, as well as precisely what that responsibility looks like.

Resources

More fluctuation in staff will also mean that companies need to commit more resources to onboarding, turnover processes, and training.

Reliability

Despite popular belief, there is no federal database that background screeners can use to run a holistic pre-employment background check. Screening companies need to look to various local, state, and federal databases and points of contact to verify different areas of someone’s background.

More than ever, companies must be able to trust their screening partner to deliver rapid turnaround times, accurate information, and committed customer service support in order to leverage their independent workforce.

Get in touch today to learn more about how MYB can help your business adjust to this new workforce.