Untitled - socium.ge

Labor in the network society 185include many assembly, shipping, light-industrial, and clerical positions,which, combined, still account for over half the employment in temporaryagencies in the region. Temporary employees, however, also include highlyskilled technicians, engineers, and computer professionals, who are the mostrapidly growing segment in the temporary help industry and form the core ofworkers placed through many other types of private-sector intermediaries.The four most prominent types of private-sector intermediary that exist inthe Valley are the following:Temporary help firms: These are the most visible and well-known type ofintermediary, and the number of firms and the number of people employed inthese firms have grown dramatically in recent years. Between 1984 and 1998,for example, employment in temporary agencies grew by 174 percent, whiletotal employment grew by 26 percent. More importantly, temporary help firmshave become increasingly integrated into the human resource practices ofmany high-tech firms, entering into long-term contracts, providing managementand recruiting staff on the work site of client firms, and providing a varietyof other value-added management and administrative services for agrowing sector of the workforce.Consultant brokerage firms: Though somewhat less well known, contractoror consultant brokerage firms play a critical role in the regional labor market,particularly at middle and upper levels of the occupational structure.Contractor brokers are very similar to temporary help firms in that they recruitprofessional contractors for temporary positions in firms in the area. They aredistinct from typical temporary help firms in that they specialize in moreskilled positions, they recruit often for permanent positions as well as contractpositions, and will place contractors who are incorporated or prefer to remainself-employed. One of the most comprehensive directories of recruiting firmslisted more than 800 firms in the Silicon Valley area in 1999. 4Web-based job sites: This category of private-sector intermediary has mushroomedsince 1994. The largest job sites are general-purpose national sites,such as monster.com and hotjobs.com, which attempt to cover all occupationalcategories in regional labor markets across the country. Other sites are morespecialized, such as dice.com (Data-processing Independent ConsultantsExchange), or Jobs for Programmers (www.prgjobs.com). Many sites arestand alone, and only have a presence online. Other sites are linked to variousindustry associations and recruiting networks in which the web-based “cybermediary”work is an extension of their other activities.Professional employer organizations (PEOs):These firms provide a variety