{
  "id": 770275,
  "title": "U.S. employers are relying more and more on ‘disposable’ workers. Here’s why",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/13/u-s-employers-are-relying-more-and-more-on-disposable-workers-heres",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-08-13T13:02:43.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Fast Company",
    "slug": "fast-company",
    "url": "https://www.fastcompany.com/91588548/u-s-employers-relying-more-more-disposable-workers-heres-why"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "As you step into your Boston apartment each morning, you greet the concierge, a contractor who works for a staff agency. In a nearby office building, the night-time cleaners are also contractors. Your lunch sandwich server is a part-time employee with no long-term prospects. Even when you give in to temptation and eat Doritos, remember that the tasters who ensure the chips' addictive qualities are also contractors.\n\nThese scenarios exemplify what I refer to as \"disposable jobs.\" Workers in these positions work at an employer's site, but the employer makes no promises about their career prospects or job security. My research reveals that over one-third of U.S. workers—nearly 57 million full- or part-time employees—fall into this category.\n\nTo better understand this trend, I conducted a nationwide survey involving over 6,000 people and interviewed nearly 100 workers, employers, and policymakers. I discovered three distinct categories of disposable workers.\n\nFirst, there are contractors, employed by staffing firms but working at a client's location. These include temporary office staff, building cleaners, and security guards. While some may earn high wages, such as travel nurses, many are poorly paid.\n\nSecond, there are freelancers who work for companies, organizations, or agencies without being official employees. This group includes Uber and Lyft drivers, computer programmers, and freelance journalists. In my survey, freelancers accounted for 5% of the workforce.\n\nLastly, there are marginal workers, employed by companies or organizations but lacking career opportunities. They often have high turnover built into their jobs. In my survey, marginal workers made up 17% of the workforce. Marginal work is significant due to its size and the fact that these jobs, despite appearing standard, are designed to be disposable.\n\nMarginal workers include staff attorneys who are hired as employees by law firms but lack promotion opportunities. Adjunct professors, both part-time and full-time contract faculty, are another example. In 1970, tenure-track professors comprised 73% of college and university instructors, while today only 32% hold that status, leaving the rest as adjunct instructors or contract faculty.\n\nPart-time marginal workers are also prevalent. Employers prefer part-time workers due to lower costs and higher turnover, enabling them to adjust workforce size and avoid career development investments. Following the Affordable Care Act's implementation in 2014, employers began using part-time workers more frequently to reduce health insurance costs. This trend emerged as a strategy to save money and minimize management costs related to layoffs and severance.",
  "summary": "When I leave my Boston condo every day, I say good morning to the concierge, who works for a contracting company providing staff to residential buildings. When I conduct an interview in a nearby building, the people who clean that office at night are contractors . The person who serves me my lunch sandwich is a part-timer with no career prospects in that job. When my best intentions to eat well…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}