Agents of casualization? The temporary staffing industry and labour market restructuring in Australia

Abstract

This article presents a study of the Australian temporary staffing industry. It explores how temporary staffing markets are manufactured through the interactions between industrial relations and regulatory systems, on the one hand, and the structures and strategies of domestic and transnational temporary staffing agencies on the other. The article draws on secondary datasets and semi-structured interviews with government departments, labour unions, staffing agencies and their trade bodies to analyse the size, structure and characteristics of the Australian temporary staffing market. It argues that the Australian market differs in important ways from those other ‘neoliberal’ labour market regimes—such as those in Canada, UK and USA—with which it is often compared. The article argues for an approach that seeks to explore the (often gradual) mutual transformation of temporary staffing organizations and the institutional and regulatory systems in which they are embedded, rather than privileging one at the expense of the other.