Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 16, 1993 TAG: 9305160040
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But that total is misleading. Twenty million of them have only part-time jobs, and of the unemployed in 1992, 1.1 million were listed as "discouraged workers" - persons who wanted a job but were not looking because they felt a job search would be fruitless.
From Bank of America tellers in San Francisco to United Airlines skycaps at a dozen airports, more and more Americans are learning the new corporate reality: It is often cheaper to hire part-time workers, temporary employees and consultants who are easily dismissible and don't require health care or other benefits.
They are, in short, disposable.
The trend may become more pronounced as global competition increases - even Korea complains these days that it can't compete with the cheap labor offered in Sri Lanka and Thailand - and the U.S. economy continues its transformation, moving from an agricultural base to manufacturing and then to services.
The largest private employer in the United States is not one of the corporate giants whose names are household words; it is Manpower Inc. of Milwaukee, which last year found temporary employment for 560,000 Americans in jobs ranging from computer programming to factory-line assembly.
About one-third of Manpower's "temps" traditionally work themselves into permanent positions.
Oftentimes company executives are responsible for creating the conditions that lead to employee reductions - and, along with stockholders, are the beneficiaries of the resultant reliance on low-cost "temps."
The late Steven Ross, for example, is said to have made $196 million when he merged his Warner Communications with Time Inc. in 1989 and saddled the new company with $11 billion in debt.
The next year Ross earned $4 million in salary and bonuses and $74 million in a stock swap.
Not surprisingly, the new company found itself in a budget crunch by 1991 and had to eliminate 605 jobs, including 44 at Time magazine.
One of the writers who left Time that year, voluntarily by taking a buyout, was Chris Ogden, the magazine's chief diplomatic correspondent.
For Ogden, a lot his changed since then - but not much is different.
He still writes a column for Time's international edition and still works out of Time's eighth-floor Washington office, at his same desk.
What has changed is that he now works for Time on a year-to-year contract, doing the same job for less pay and with none of the benefits that cost his employer an estimated $30,000 a year.
And complaints? None at all. "It's a trade off," said Ogden, 47, who is also working on a book.
"I've got a lot less certainty in my life and a lot more independence.
"You're scared at first, but there is adrenalin, a sense that you're doing it on your own. People keep saying, `You look so happy,' and I am. The freedom is great.
"I look around at what's happening in the economy and it struck me the other day that I am the future."
by CNB