Doctoral Dissertation Research: Changing Urban Spatial Structure and the Growth of the Temporary Help Services Industry

在过去的几十年里，美国的临时帮助服务行业（THSI）有了显著的增长。对这种增长的普遍解释集中在对灵活劳动力的需求增加，以降低使用临时工的公司的成本，以及由于工人越来越喜欢灵活的工作时间表而导致劳动力供应的变化。然而，由于临时机构以外的工作形式也可以满足这些供需要求，因此两种解释都不足以解释为什么出现了THSI。这个博士论文研究项目假设，THSI的增长部分是由于公司越来越多地分散到郊区。这种搬迁为低薪工人提供了相对较少的社会机会，他们仍然很少有机会搬到郊区。该项目探讨了企业是否利用THSI提供的劳务，在原本无法实现的条件下获取和动员劳动力。作为本研究的一部分，实证工作是对马萨诸塞州伍斯特市低工资文职和轻工业临时工的多方面探索。数据将通过对30家临时中介机构和60家使用THSI服务的公司进行深度访谈来收集。深度访谈将允许对企业使用临时工的具体原因进行更复杂的解释，并将阐明临时机构执行的匹配和动员劳动力的过程。要采访的公司和机构是从地理分层样本中随机选择的，这将允许评估公司获得低工资劳动力的便利性与公司使用THSI工人之间的关系。一项针对1800家公司的邮寄调查将测试在面试阶段观察到的趋势的结果。从访谈和邮件调查中收集的数据分析将重点放在公司为什么以及如何使用临时机构来代替他们自己的招聘工作上。本研究将提供有关企业使用临时工的可能性、强度和种类的数据，这些企业或多或少可以获得所需的劳动力资源。此外，还将对临时中介机构的位置、招聘策略、劳务等进行分析。该项目将为导致THSI快速增长的过程提供新的见解，并将阐明该行业持续增长的潜力。该项目的成果还将增进对推动THSI增长的条件的了解，并将提供有关获取就业信息的实用信息，从而改善低收入工人的就业机会。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生建立一个强大的独立研究生涯。

Over the last few decades, the temporary help service industry (THSI) in the United States has grown significantly. Prevailing explanations for this growth focus on increases in demand for flexible labor to reduce costs to companies using temporary workers and changes in labor supply owing to workers' increasing preferences for flexible work schedules. Because forms of work other than temporary agencies can also fulfill these supply and demand requirements, however, neither explanation is sufficient to explain why the THSI has emerged. This doctoral dissertation research project hypothesizes that the growth of the THSI is in part a result of the increasing decentralization of companies to suburban areas. This relocation provides relatively little social access to low-wage workers, who continue to face few opportunities to move to suburban areas. The project explores whether firms use the labor services provided by the THSI to access and mobilize labor under conditions they would not otherwise be able to achieve. Empirical work conducted as part of this study is a multi-faceted exploration of low-wage clerical and light industrial temporary work in Worcester, Massachusetts. Data will be collected through in-depth interviews with 30 temporary agencies and 60 firms who use THSI services. In-depth interviews will allow a more complex explanation of the specific reasons that firms use temporary workers and will shed light on the process of matching and mobilizing labor that temporary agencies perform. The firms and agencies to be interviewed are chosen randomly from a geographically stratified sample that will allow an assessment of the relationship between a company's ease of access to low-wage labor and the firm's use of THSI workers. A mailed survey to 1800 companies will test the results of the trends observed in the interview phase. Analysis of the data collected from both the interviews and mail survey will focus on why and how firms use temporary agencies to substitute for their own recruiting efforts. This research will provide data on the likelihood, intensity, and variety of temporary worker use by firms with greater or lesser access to their desired labor pools. Analyses also will be made of the location, recruiting strategies, and labor services provided by temporary agencies.This project will provide new insights into the processes that have resulted in the rapid growth of THSI, and it will shed light on the potential for continued growth of the industry. The project's results also will enhance understandings of the conditions that underlie growth in the THSI, and it will provide practical information regarding access to employment information, which can improve the job opportunities of low-income workers. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.