Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Recruitment & retentionTemporary employment

One person in three has worked in a temporary role, says REC

by Jo Faragher 16 Jul 2014
by Jo Faragher 16 Jul 2014

More than one-third of people in the UK have held a position as a contractor, freelancer or temporary agency worker at some point during their career, and an increasing proportion see this as a long-term way of working.

These are the key findings of a survey of more than 4,000 adults by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC).

The REC found that 41% of respondents are considering working in a more flexible way in the future, many driven by a desire to work independently rather than commit to one company.

The survey also revealed that around a quarter of adults have been a temporary agency worker at some point, and that 36% of people who have hiring responsibilities have themselves been temporary workers in the past.

The older the cross-section of respondents, the less likely they were to have had a temporary, contract or freelance role in the last five years. Only 9% of those over 55 said they had been a temporary worker in that period, compared with 23% in the 25-34 age bracket.

In terms of earning potential, having worked on a temporary basis did not harm the salary prospects of a large proportion of respondents; 22% of workers who earn more than £50,000 per year have been agency workers, the report found.

But while an increasing number are choosing a more flexible approach to work as a lifestyle option, the main reason for choosing a temporary role (cited by 43% of respondents) was they could not find a permanent job.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Kevin Green, the REC’s chief executive, said: “Working as a contractor, freelancer or agency worker is a choice for many people, and flexibility is a key reason they opt for this kind of work.”

He added that sometimes temporary work was “looked down on as a second-rate or dead-end career choice” and that more needed to be done to address this view: “We need to do more to support people who want a better work-life balance, not penalise them. That’s why we want employers to do more to treat their temporary staff like the rest of the workforce, with better communication from managers and access to training.”

Jo Faragher

Jo Faragher has been an employment and business journalist for 20 years. She regularly contributes to Personnel Today and writes features for a number of national business and membership magazines. Jo is also the author of 'Good Work, Great Technology', published in 2022 by Clink Street Publishing, charting the relationship between effective workplace technology and productive and happy employees. She won the Willis Towers Watson HR journalist of the year award in 2015 and has been highly commended twice.

previous post
Supporting people with dementia in the workplace
next post
Wages growth lowest since 2001

You may also like

Graduate jobs this summer ‘will be toughest since...

25 Jun 2025

Employers struggling with soaring candidate deception

25 Jun 2025

UK engineering and manufacturing firms face hiring struggles

23 Jun 2025

Aldi to hire for 1,000 new supermarket roles

23 Jun 2025

Only a third of recruiters receive high-quality job...

20 Jun 2025

Number of new nurses from abroad falls by...

18 Jun 2025

Pensions regulator: make sure summer staff don’t miss...

18 Jun 2025

Capita rolls out ‘agentic AI’ to speed up...

13 Jun 2025

Redundancies boost candidate availability at fastest pace since...

13 Jun 2025

Healthdaq: Shaking up health and social care recruitment

11 Jun 2025

  • Empowering working parents and productivity during the summer holidays SPONSORED | Businesses play a...Read more
  • AI is here. Your workforce should be ready. SPONSORED | From content creation...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+