Untitled - socium.ge

Labor in the network society 191outcomes for workers. In the first ever quantitative study to try to measure theoverall impact of labor market intermediaries in the region, for example, it didnot appear that intermediaries had any significant direct impact on wages,though there was a very strong relationship between the use of temporary helpagencies and lack of access to health insurance (Pastor et al., 2003). Therewas, however, a clear statistical relationship between the use of intermediariesand the character of people’s social networks. Using a measure of “socialconnectedness,” the study found that those who are more socially connectedare less likely to use intermediaries. Furthermore, of those people who do useintermediaries, those with strong social connectedness are more likely to use“better” intermediaries – those intermediaries that provide a more comprehensiveset of services, primarily community colleges, professional associations,and unions, rather than temporary agencies.As qualitative studies of intermediaries in Silicon Valley have repeatedlypointed out, however, it is a mistake to assume that certain whole categoriesof intermediaries are “bad” and other categories are “good.” In comparing afor-profit staffing services firm and a union-affiliated non-profit agency, forexample, Neuwirth (2004) found surprising instances of the for-profit firmbeing more effective than the union-affiliated agency in advocating on behalfof their employees’ rights and improving working conditions in their clientfirms, for temporary and permanent employees alike. Similarly, detailed studiesof non-profit intermediaries find a wide array of effectiveness in improvingoutcomes for individuals in the labor market, with some agenciessignificantly improving long-term outcomes but many agencies having nomeasurable impact whatsoever (Harrison and Weiss, 1998; Benner et al.,2001).Finally, though systematic qualitative research on labor market intermediariesis only beginning to emerge, it seems clear that intermediaries cannot beunderstood in isolation. Many staffing service firms are forming complexnetworking relationships with other staffing agencies, while intermediarynetworks bringing together public-sector, private-sector, and membershipassociations are also forming (Giloth, 2004; Neuwirth, 2004). Ultimately, it isthe nature of these network relationships, and the relationships that intermediarieshave with both the demand and supply side of the labor market, thatshape labor market outcomes for workers.Thus, in trying to understand the implications of the emerging social structuresshaped by these complex labor market dynamics, one thing that is clearis that most labor market statistics provide very limited insights. Crosssectionalmeasures of the distribution of jobs by industry and occupation, orcross-sectional measurements of wage distributions, provide useful understandingsof changes in the structure of the economy, but provide limitedinsights into the actual conditions individuals experience in the labor market.