Part Time Help

One sign that the economy will never be what it was before the bubble burs, is an increasing number of businesses relying on permanent part time employees or independent contractors.

The primary advantage for the company is not having to pay into insurance plans or other benefits.

While the advantage to the employee is a some form of income in an economy where employment can be difficult to find.

This is one time the employment situation can benefit retired individuals. These people are experienced, with few requirements beyond a flexible schedule and small income.

In fact, most of these potential employees don’t want a lot of hours, because, in many cases, too much additional income can adversely affect their retirement income.

Outsourcing to a private contractor is good for solving specific problems, eg. network trouble, or handling the end of month bookkeeping. The disadvantage to hiring outside help is that many times, a company goes with the low-bidder, and then has to pay someone to fix the mess they paid just someone to create.

However, speaking as a former private contractor in the field of computer networking, it can be a tough row to hoe. You not only have to compete with less qualified contractors, who work too cheap. Many times you have to be in a position to wait for 30 to 90 days for payment.

For the politicians on the other hand, this permanent part time /contractor thing is a winning situation, because all of these people, no matter how little they make, are off the unemployment rolls –making the economic situation look better than it is.