A. Background

This summary report provides a brief history of the Contingent Work Supplement (CWS) to the February 1995 Current Population Survey (CPS). The CWS was the first survey ever to collect information directly from workers on whether they held "contingent" jobs; that is, jobs which were structured to last only a limited period of time.

B. Sponsor and Supplement Periodicity

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) sponsored this supplement. Pending funding availability, BLS expects this to be a recurring (every two years) supplement in THE CPS. The main points of contact for this supplement were Tom Nardone and Anne Polivka of BLS, and Maria Reed and Francia McDaniel of Census.

C. OMB Clearance

The OMB Clearance Number for this supplement is 1220-0153 and the clearance is effective through January 1996. Since this was a reimbursable supplement, the sponsor prepared the clearance request with our input and submitted it to OMB.

D. Supplement Purpose and Content

The purpose of the supplement was to obtain information (never previously collected) about the "contingent" workforce. For each worker, the supplement collected information about the following characteristics:

Expectation of continuing employment

Satisfaction with their current employment arrangement

Current job history

Transition into the current employment arrangement

Search for other employment

Employee benefits

Earnings (if not collected as part of basic CPS)

BLS' intent was to use the supplement data to develop several alternative estimates of the size of the "contingent" workforce and to analyze the characteristics of workers in contingent employment arrangements. Five employment arrangements, which are not mutually exclusive, were specifically identified by the questionnaire. These were:

Temporary work arranged through the employer directly

Temporary work arranged through an agency

Independent contracting/Independent consulting/Freelancing

Employment with firms that provide employees or services under contract

On-call work

See Attachment 1 for a copy of the supplement questionnaire.

E. Universe

The supplement was asked of each household member age 15 and older who:

had a job during reference week and worked for pay or profit, or

did not have a job during reference week but looked for work during the last year and was available for work.

The supplement was not asked of unpaid family workers and persons not looking for work (this includes persons not in the labor force and unemployed persons on layoff who are not looking for work).

F. Self or Proxy Response

This was a proxy response supplement. The sponsor inquired about a self-response only supplement, but decided to allow proxy responses due to the added cost involved.

Although a proxy response was acceptable, a self response was preferred. Interviewers were instructed to interview the sample person if he/she were available. There were no callbacks allowed.

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