Tracking Contingent Workers

As the year comes to a busy conclusion, we’re still catching up with news that didn’t make the front page. In the first week of November, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics published a data release that’s even less frequent than the four year presidential election cycle. The Survey of Contingent and Alternative Employment Arrangements sheds light into workers who don’t hold conventional jobs with predictable schedules.

Collected as a supplement to the July 2023 Current Population Survey (the questionnaire best known for generating the unemployment rate), the survey asked specific questions of respondents who said their jobs were temporary or not expected to last. The supplement has irregular timing; it was last taken in 2017, and before that, 2005. Nonetheless, the output offers some glimpses into how the labor market evolved after the pandemic.

Some workers are content with contingent arrangements.

Independent contractors (including freelance workers) are the largest of the alternative cohorts, representing 12 million workers or over 7% of total employment. Participants in this category are often older, as it is a path available to those with more experience. It can also serve as a bridge into retirement. Among independent contractors, 36% are aged 55 or older, whereas only 22% of workers in conventional jobs were of that age.

On-call workers are those who report to work only when needed, though they can be scheduled well into the future. These 2.8 million workers (1.7% of employment) work predominantly in the service, construction and healthcare sectors. Lastly, workers provided by contract firms and temporary help agencies (totaling 1.8 million) round out the survey population, offering their services to employers on an interim basis.

Contingent workers can be found in nearly every line of work. Outside of independent contractors, the population skews younger: 12.9% of workers age 16 to 24 had contingent jobs, compared with 3.1% for those ages 25-54. New hires may lack the skills and experience for steady employment, or are content with alterative arrangements while they continue their studies.

Side jobs can also be taken on a contingent basis. Over eight million people (about 5% the workforce) hold multiple jobs. Of these, 13% describe their second job as contingent.