IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/labour/v26y2012i3p341-355.html

What Drives the Demand for Temporary Agency Workers?

Author

Listed:
  • Elke J. Jahn
  • Jan Bentzen

Abstract

Temporary agency employment has grown steadily in most European countries over the past three decades as part of the general trend towards increased employment flexibility. Yet to this day, it remains an open question what drives the demand for temporary agency workers. The paper examines, first, whether the deregulation of temporary agency employment is responsible for the growth of the flexible staffing industry. Second, we investigate the cyclical behavior of temporary agency employment. Using monthly data for Germany covering the period 1973-2008, we show that the continuous liberalization of this sector is not responsible for the surge in temporary agency employment. Our analysis reveals, moreover, that temporary agency employment exhibits strong cyclical behavior and correlates with main economic indicators in real time. Since most European countries promoted the use of temporary agency employment in a similar way, we believe that our results may be interesting from an international perspective as well.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Elke J. Jahn & Jan Bentzen, 2012. "What Drives the Demand for Temporary Agency Workers?," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 26(3), pages 341-355, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:labour:v:26:y:2012:i:3:p:341-355
    DOI: j.1467-9914.2012.00550.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/j.1467-9914.2012.00550.x
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/j.1467-9914.2012.00550.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Larisa Smirnykh & Andreas Wörgötter, 2013. "Why do Russian Firms Use Fixed-Term and Agency Work Contracts?," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1014, OECD Publishing.
    2. Smirnych, L. I. & Wörgötter, Andreas, 2016. "The importance of institutional and organizational characteristics for the use of fixed-term and agency work contracts in Russia," ECON WPS - Working Papers in Economic Theory and Policy 09/2016, TU Wien, Institute of Statistics and Mathematical Methods in Economics, Economics Research Unit.
    3. Jahn, Elke J. & Pozzoli, Dario, 2013. "The pay gap of temporary agency workers — Does the temp sector experience pay off?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 48-57.
    4. Oskar Jost, 2022. "See you soon: fixed-term contracts, unemployment and recalls in Germany—a linked employer–employee analysis," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 49(3), pages 601-626, August.
    5. Genevieve Knight & Zhang Wei, 2015. "Isolating the Determinants of Temporary Agency Worker Use by Firms: An Analysis of Temporary Agency Workers in Australian Aged Care," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 18(2), pages 205-237.
    6. Gunther Tichy, 2014. "Flexicurity – ein an seiner Umsetzung scheiterndes Konzept," WIFO Monatsberichte (monthly reports), WIFO, vol. 87(8), pages 537-553, August.
    7. Elke Jahn & Enzo Weber, 2016. "The effect of temporary help jobs on employment volatility," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 49(1), pages 412-427, February.
    8. Jahn, Elke Jutta & Rosholm, Michael, 2015. "The Cyclicality of the Stepping Stone Effect of Temporary Agency Employment," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 113117, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    9. Alejandro Micco & Pablo Muñoz-Henríquez, 2018. "The Impact of Extended Employment Protection Laws on the Demand for Temporary Agency Workers," Working Papers wp463, University of Chile, Department of Economics.
    10. Ferreira Sequeda, M.T. & de Grip, A. & van der Velden, R.K.W., 2015. "Does on-the-job informal learning in OECD countries differ by contract duration?," ROA Research Memorandum 008, Maastricht University, Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA).
    11. Jennifer Ferreira, 2016. "The German temporary staffing industry: growth, development, scandal and resistance," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 117-143, March.
    12. Andersson Joona, Pernilla & Wadensjö, Eskil, 2012. "A Price for Flexibility? The Temp Agency Wage Gap in Sweden 1998-2008," IZA Discussion Papers 6587, IZA Network @ LISER.
    13. Henna Busk & Christine Dauth & Elke J. Jahn, 2017. "Do Changes in Regulation Affect Temporary Agency Workers’ Job Satisfaction?," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 514-544, July.
    14. Patel, Pankaj C., 2025. "Unlocking the potential: Examining Chile’s 2007 temporary worker labor reform as a key to boosting productivity in micro-firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    15. Neumann, Uwe, 2017. "Temporary agency employment in Germany: A strategic "buffer" for firms and regions in the crisis?," Ruhr Economic Papers 727, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    16. Burkert, Carola & Garloff, Alfred & Lepper, Timo, 2014. "Arbeitnehmerüberlassung in Hessen: Sprungbrett in reguläre Beschäftigung, Vermeidung von Arbeitslosigkeit oder gefangen in der Leiharbeitsfalle?," IAB-Regional. Berichte und Analysen aus dem Regionalen Forschungsnetz. IAB Hessen 201401, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    17. Chen, Kuan-Jen & Lai, Ching-Chong & Lai, Ting-Wei, 2016. "The Division of Temporary and Permanent Employment and Business Cycle Fluctuations," MPRA Paper 72078, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Ferreira, Maria & de Grip, Andries & van der Velden, Rolf, 2018. "Does informal learning at work differ between temporary and permanent workers? Evidence from 20 OECD countries," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 18-40.
    19. Baudy, Philipp & Cords, Dario, 2016. "Deregulation of temporary agency employment in a unionized economy: Does this really lead to a substitution of regular employment?," Hohenheim Discussion Papers in Business, Economics and Social Sciences 06-2016, University of Hohenheim, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C41 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Duration Analysis; Optimal Timing Strategies
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J40 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - General
    • J48 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Particular Labor Markets; Public Policy
    • K31 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Labor Law

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:labour:v:26:y:2012:i:3:p:341-355. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/csrotit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.