The Role of Temporary Help Employment in Low-wage Worker Advancement

Peter Mueser, Kenneth Troske and Carolyn Heinrich

No 719, Working Papers from Department of Economics, University of Missouri

Abstract: We examine the effects of temporary help service employment on later earnings and employment for individuals participating in three federal programs providing supportive services to those facing employment difficulties. The programs include Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, whose participants are seriously disadvantaged; a job training program with a highly heterogeneous population of participants; and employment exchange services, whose participants consist of Unemployment Insurance claimants and individuals seeking assistant in obtaining employment. We undertake our analyses for two periods: the late 1990s, a time of very strong economic growth, and shortly after 2000, a time of relative stagnation. Our results suggest that temporary help service firms may facilitate quicker access to jobs for those seeking employment assistance and impart substantial benefits as transitional employment, especially for individuals whose alternatives are severely limited. Those who do not move out of temporary help jobs, however, face substantially poorer prospects, and we observe that nonwhites are more likely than whites to remain in THS positions in the two years following program participation. Our results are robust to program and time period.

Keywords: temporary help; mediated employment; program evaluation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J26 J48 J68 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 87 pages
Date: 2007-10-15
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published in Labor Market Intermediaries, edited by D. Autor. Cambridge, Mass: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2009

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Related works:
Chapter: The Role of Temporary Help Employment in Low-Wage Worker Advancement (2009)
Working Paper: The Role of Temporary Help Employment in Low-wage Worker Advancement (2007)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:umc:wpaper:0719

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