Managed Flexibility

Abstract

This article provides an account of the temporary staffing industry outside its two largest markets, the UK and the US. It argues that there is greater national variation in industry characteristics than has generally been acknowledged, using the example of Sweden to illustrate the importance of understanding staffing industries in relation to the regulatory context in which they are embedded. Drawing on secondary materials and interviews with senior officials in transnational and domestic temporary staffing agencies, labour unions, industry trade bodies and government departments, the article asserts that the temporary staffing industry should be understood as an active agent of labour market restructuring. It provides a detailed analysis of the Swedish industry's distinct periods of expansion, charting its legalization and subsequent growth in the context of a highly regulated labour market. In conclusion, the article makes two key points. First, the Swedish temporary staffing market is the product of a particular social democratic welfare state regime and the roles played by the different social partners which lead to the production of a managed flexibility. Second, the particularities of the Swedish system, and the need for transnational staffing agencies to adapt their activities, underline how firms both shape, and are shaped by, the economic and social characteristics and dynamics that exist in the territories in which they invest.