Contingent Employment, Workforce Health, and Citizenship By Marc ...

In Canada, contingent work¹ accounts for 13% of the total employment rate, up from 9.7% in 1998. In the United States, upwards of 30% of workers are engaged in some form of contingent work (Benach, Benavides, Platt, Diez-Roux, & Muntaner, 2000; Cohany, 1996; Quinlan & Bohle, 2004). Similar labour market shifts are apparent in European countries. Data compiled by Quinlan, Mayhew, and Bohle (2001) from unpublished Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) research indicate that on average, temporary work across 15 countries grew from 9.6% of all employment in 1983 to 14% in 1999, representing an overall 16-year increase of 44%. This upward trend is especially evident in the temporary help services industry, in which the number of workers hired by temporary help agencies increased by 43% between 1989 and 1994 (Nollen, 1996; Quinlan et al., 2001; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1995). Furthermore, between 1995 and 2001, the number of temporary help agencies grew by approximately 50% (Peck & Theodore, 2004). Data from Statistics Canada and the Conference Board of Canada show there was a fourfold increase in temporary help agencies between 1993 and 2004 (Hamdani, 1997). Administrative clerical workers and industrial trades account for the largest share of this market.

The increasing prevalence of contingent work has prompted concerns about its health implications for people who engage in these types of work. Nonetheless, the relationship between contingent work and health is poorly understood because the existing research findings are inconsistent or inconclusive. One body of literature suggests that contingent work has detrimental effects on the health, safety, and well-being of workers (Aronsson, 1999; Aronsson, Gustafsson, & Dallner, 2002; Foley, 1998; Martens, Nijhuis, Van Boxtel, & Knottnerus, 1999; Mayhew & Quinlan, 2000; Quinlan, 1999; Quinlan & Mayhew, 1999; Quinlan et al.,