Temporary and contract jobs are another victim of the recession, meaning freshly laid-off workers have a hard time finding even short-term work to pay the bills.
Nationally, there are about 600,000 fewer temp and contract jobs available on a given day compared with 2007, according to the American Staffing Association. Adding to these difficult numbers is the reality that with a 6.6 percent state unemployment rate, more people are chasing jobs than when times are good.
“The first thing that goes in a recession is temporary work,” said Judi Kent Gervasini, head of J Kent Staffing. At Gervasini’s agency, temporary work is down 50 percent from a year ago. Sometimes she offers small jobs at her own agency because she feels sorry for people.
“The pool of potential candidates is huge,” she said. “Hundreds and hundreds of people.”
The administrative-type jobs usually filled by temp workers is a sector that has been battered in this recession. Colorado lost 14,000 administrative and support jobs in 2008, and another 9,000 temp jobs the same year, according to the state Department of Labor and Employment.
Denver resident Elaine Spector has worked full-time temp jobs for more than four years. She likes temping, she says, because she likes to stay out of office politics.
Spector has always had administrative work, and had built a reputation for reliability. But she’s been without income for four months because everything has slowed down so much. She just secured a small temp job but is not sure how long it will last.
“I’ve got to save every penny I can,” Spector said. “There are things I have to do with that money, I have to live on what I can make now.”
The perennial temp job — substitute teaching — has seen a spike in applicants in some districts. In Cherry Creek, for example, a spokeswoman said “we can’t process them as fast as they’re coming in.” There are 2,000 active substitutes in the district’s system, and about 500 to 600 work regularly.
Denver Public Schools still needs people, even though it is seeing roughly 180 substitute teaching applicants a month.
“We definitely still need more,” said spokesman Alex Sanchez. “We’re always looking.”
Allison Sherry: 303-954-1377 or asherry@denverpost.com
