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182 Chris BennerTable 7.2Indicators of flexible employment in Silicon ValleyWorkersGrowth in the non-standard Change Increaseworkforce a 1984 1998 (%) (No.)Temporary workers 12,340 33,850 174 21,510Part-time workers 136,200 180,762 33 44,562Business services 48,500 130,300 169 81,800Self-employed 45,700 76,920 68 31,220Upper estimate of size of nonstandardworkforce 242,700 421,832 74 179,132Lower estimate of size of nonstandardworkforce 189,300 277,992 47 88,692Total civilian employment 761,200 961,500 26 200,300EmploymentEmploymentgrowth of firmsgrowth of newSigns of employment volatility existing in 1990 firmsEmployment in high-techindustries (1990–2001) b –120,559 258,7961999–2000 2001–2002Employment change inhigh-tech industries c +12% –22%Median job tenure (2001) d 30 monthsSources: a Figures for temporary workers and business services come from the CaliforniaEmployment Development Department. Figures for self-employment are projections based on USCensus data. Figures for part-time employment are from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, andassume Santa Clara County has the same percentage of part-time workers as the nationb Junfu Zhang, High-tech Start-ups and Industry Dynamics in Silicon Valley (San Francisco:Public Policy Institute of California, 2003)c Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, 2001 Index of Silicon Valley and 2003 Index of SiliconValley (San Jose: Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, 2001, 2003)d Manuel Pastor, Laura Leete, Laura Dresser, Chris Benner, Annette Bernhardt, Bob Brownstein,and Sarah Zimmerman, “Economic Opportunity in a Volatile Economy: Understanding the Roleof Labor Market Intermediaries in Two Regions,” report to the Ford Foundation (San Jose:Working Partnerships, 2003)Mediated employment relationships: Another significant development in thenature of employment relations is the increasing mediation of that relationshipby forces or institutions external to the firm. In some cases, this has beenreferred to as “market-mediated work arrangements” (Abraham, 1990;Cappelli, 1999) in which pressures from outside the firm boundaries are usedas a management tool, which has become highly entrenched in Silicon Valley.This is reflected in the following description of electronic manufacturingservices firm Solectron’s shop-floor management system: