Search Results
Journal Article
Temporary help services and the volatility of industry output
To gain a better understanding of how fluctuations in output influence firms' decision to hire temporary workers, the authors examine the relationship between output volatility and the use of temporary labor. They find that, all things being equal, temporary employment is higher in states with more volatile industries and lower in states with a relatively high degree of co-movement of industry output fluctuations.
Journal Article
Who are temporary nurses?
Using data from the National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses, the authors compare the characteristics of temporary and permanent registered nurses. They compare their findings for the nursing profession with characteristics of temporary and permanent workers in other occupations. They also look at the role of geography in a registered nurse?s decision to become a temporary worker.
Working Paper
Manufacturing plants’ use of temporary workers: an analysis using census micro data
Using plant-level data from the Plant Capacity Utilization (PCU) Survey, we examine how a manufacturing plant?s use of temporary workers is associated with the nature of its output fluctuations. Our empirical evidence suggests that plants choose temps over perms when they expect output to fall, which allows them to avoid costs associated with laying off permanent employees. We also found that plants whose output levels are associated with greater levels of uncertainty use more temps. The effects of other variables are also tested in order to examine the validity of various views about why ...
Working Paper
Demand volatility and the lag between the growth of temporary and permanent employment
The growth rate of temporary help service employment is often considered to be a leading business cycle indicator, because the firing and hiring of temporary help workers typically lead that of permanent workers. However, few works in the literature focus on the mechanism that generates the lag between temporary and permanent growth. This paper investigates how demand volatility is related to the lag. Focusing on the relationship between a firm?s information extraction and their hiring/firing decisions, our simple model predicts that the average size of transitory demand shocks increase the ...
Journal Article
Professional employer organizations: What are they, who uses them, and why should we care?
Using both public and confidential data, the authors summarize how the intensity of use of professional employer organization (PEO) services varies across industries and geographical areas. Their analyses using microdata of manufacturing establishments suggest that the use of PEO services depends on the size of the establishment and of its parent firm. The use of PEO services is greater for newly constructed establishments, as well as for establishments with a potentially high injury and illness rate. Greater diversification across industries and geographical areas of a parent firm may also ...
Journal Article
Outsourcing, firm size, and product complexity: evidence from credit unions
Outsourcing business services is a key concern in the modern economy. Focusing on data processing services for credit unions from 1994 to 2003, the authors find that both credit union size and the diversity of their product offerings influence the propensity to outsource. The results suggest that simple scale-economy-based explanations for outsourcing may be inadequate.
Working Paper
Where do manufacturing firms locate their headquarters?
Firms? headquarters [HQ] support their production activity, by gathering information and outsourcing business services, as well as, managing, evaluating, and coordinating internal firm activities. In search of a better location for these functions, firms often separate the HQ function physically from their production facilities and construct stand-alone HQs. By locating its HQ in a large, service oriented metro area away from its production facilities, a firm may be better able to out-source service functions in that local metro market and also to gather information about market conditions ...
Newsletter
The changing relationship between headquarters and cities
A recent Chicago Fed conference looked at the shifting geography of company headquarters, with a public policy focus on headquarters as a much-desired target of economic development efforts.
Working Paper
Spatial organization of firms
A firm?s production activities are often supported by non-production activities. Among these activities are administrative units including headquarters, which process information both within and between firms. Often firms physically separate such administrative units from their production activities and create stand alone Central Administrative Offices (CAO). However, having its activities in multiple locations potentially imposes significant internal firm face-to-face communication costs. What types of firms are more likely to separate out such functions? If firms do separate administration ...
Newsletter
Why do firms use temporary workers?
This article explores the pros and cons of using temporary workers and their permanent counterparts. It examines firms? various motivations for using temporary employment, accounting for geographical and industry differences.