Staircases or Treadmills? Labor Market Intermediaries and Economic Opportunity in a Changing Economy. By Chris  Benner, Laura  Leete, and Manual  Pastor. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2007. Pp. 240. $32.50 (cloth).

2008 ◽  
Vol 82 (2) ◽  
pp. 343-345
Author(s):  
Timothy P. Hilton
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Labor Market ◽  
Russell Sage Foundation ◽  
Economic Opportunity ◽  
Labor Market Intermediaries ◽  
Changing Economy ◽  
Market Intermediaries

Book Reviews

2009 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 207-208
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Labor Market ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Assistant Professor ◽  
Associate Professor ◽  
Economic Opportunity ◽  
Labor Market Intermediaries ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Market Intermediaries

Peter Gottschalk of Boston College reviews “Staircases or Treadmills? Labor Market Intermediaries and Economic Opportunity in a Changing Economy” by Chris Benner, Laura Leete, Manuel Pastor,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Investigates what approaches are most effective in helping workers to secure jobs with decent wages and benefits. Provides policy recommendations for how job-matching organizations can better serve disadvantaged workers. Discusses mobility and economic opportunity--the role of intermediaries; the old and new economies--a comparison of Milwaukee and Silicon Valley; meeting, molding, and making markets--how intermediaries shape labor flows; the incidence and use of labor market intermediaries; the impact of intermediaries on job outcomes; and the role of social capital in choosing labor market intermediaries. Benner is Assistant Professor of Geography at the Pennsylvania State University. Leete is Fred H. Paulus Director of Public Policy Research and Associate Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Willamette University. Pastor is Professor of Geography and American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. Index.”

scholarly journals Online labor platforms versus temp agencies: What are the differences?

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeroen Meijerink ◽  
Martijn Arets
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Labor Supply ◽  
Supply And Demand ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Labor Market Intermediaries ◽  
Online Marketplaces ◽  
Online Labor ◽  
Labor Supply And Demand ◽  
Market Intermediaries

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare online labor platforms (OLPs) such as Upwork, Fiverr, YoungOnes and Temper with traditional temp agencies. At a first glance, OLPs and temp agencies strongly resemble each other while they aim to meet the need for short-term labor of organizations. The authors ask the question how these labor market intermediaries differ on issues such as information technology usage, ways how labor supply and demand are matched and working conditions (e.g. status, pay and social security of workers). Design/methodology/approach Next to a review of the academic literature, the authors conducted interviews with representatives of six OLPs and temp agencies in the Netherlands as well as a legal specialist in Dutch labor law. Findings The authors found that OLPs and temp agencies differ on several issues. First, although OLPs rely on online marketplaces for matching labor supply and demand, temp agencies generally rely on human matchmakers. Second, although OLPs enable workers and client organizations to initiate transactions themselves, temp agencies employ representatives that do the matching for workers and clients. Third, and as a result, OLPs afford client organizations to almost instantly hire workers on-demand, whereas the flexibility and speed that temp agencies can offer depend on availability and processing capacity of human matchmakers. Originality/value According to the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to compare OLPs and temp agencies and, in doing so, offers academics and practitioners an analytical framework to compare different types of labor market intermediaries.

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