When Jobs are Temporary, How Does Economic Development Create Them?

Bill Fulton writes about the shift from permanent, full-time jobs to "1099 jobs": hourly, contract work that is becoming more and more common. If 1099 jobs take over the economy, how can economic developers do their job?

1 minute read

May 23, 2011, 9:00 AM PDT

By Tim Halbur


Fulton argues that the shift will mean more investment in infrastructure than in individual businesses:

"...even though there may not be jobs in the conventional sense, there is still work. That's the whole idea of the 1099 economy. It's just a different way of organizing the economy. Businesses need economically valuable work to be done, but instead of employing people full-time and permanently, they contract with individuals to do the work temporarily. The work ebbs and flows, the businesses come and go, and the 1099 employees work for a while and then move on. It's a lot more fluid -- and seemingly uncertain -- than the traditional economy."

Monday, May 23, 2011 in Governing Magazine

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