Powerful interests have fueled these developments. Employers have figured out that structuring jobs like yours -- without benefits, job security, or seniority rights to promotion -- allows them to put more money in their pockets and in the pockets of stockholders. This strategy also gives them more "flexibility"; to cut back or expand their workforce at a moment's notice, to "downsize" without having to pay severance, to pick and choose whom to promote, demote, reward, or punish, and to put pressure on the regular, full-time workforce who fear being replaced by "temps." Meanwhile, labor agencies have grown into a massive industry in their own right, with the enormous Manpower, Inc. being just the tip of the iceberg. You can learn more about the scope of this phenomenon by reading several excellent studies: Chris Tilly's Half a Job (Temple University Press, 1996); Kevin Henson's Just a Temp (Temple University Press, 1996); and Kathleen Barker and Kathleen Christensen's Contingent Work (Cornell University Press, 1998).