The increased use of contractors over the past few years is more than just a knee-jerk reaction to the recession, according to a recent survey by Randstad.

The Randstad Workforce360 Study found that companies are beginning to view blended workforces - those…

As the number of mobile devices and users increases rapidly, contractors are helping the wireless telecommunications industry keep up with the demand.

More than 3.8 million Americans are employed in this sector, which accounts for 2.6% of all U.S. employment, according to CTIA, the International Association for the…

If you are completing I-9s for contractors, you should continue to use the current form despite the August 31, 2012, expiration date listed in the upper right corner of the form, according to the U.S. Citizenship and…

As the new school year gets started, it's not just students and teachers getting back into the swing of things. Pediatric therapists also play a vital role in many schools, but you might be surprised to learn how many of those therapists are contractors.

In fact, 90% of the placement revenue earned by recruiting firm PediaStaff comes from contract staffing, according to the firm's Vice President of Recruitment, Keith Adams.…

What if, as some experts predict, half of American workers were engaged on a contingent basis? How would the needs of our country, cities, and states change if a significant amount of people worked from home or outside the traditional 9-5 schedule?  

Those are some of the questions Thomas Fisher, Dean of the College of Design at the University of Minnesota, tackles in his article…

The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act), which provides funding to healthcare providers for the adoption and “meaningful use” of EHRs, has generated a huge demand for health IT professionals. This demand has created a new niche recruiters who have the ability to place profesisonals with the unique skills set needed to fill these positions.

One recruiter who is focusing his efforts on this niche is …

In the 19th century, it was the Industrial Revolution.  In the 1950's, it was the shift from blue collar to white collar work. And some are predicting that we are now at the beginning of another workforce revolution: a shift from permanent employment to contingent work.

In his book Labor Rising, The Past and Future of Working People in…

In a fantasy world, when you approach a new company for job orders, they would say "Where have you been? We have been waiting for you!" and give you a couple of solid job orders to fill.

In the real world, you are one of several recruiters trying to get the same job orders from the same companies.  After meeting with "no less than 100 staffing agencies" over the past several years, Matt Lowney, EVP Talent & Operations for the Buntin Group, offers some tips to help recruiters…

What does a worker who has only been out of work for a month have in common with one who has been unemployed for six months to a year? It appears they are both just as likely to be rejected for job based on their employment status (or lack thereof), even as legislators move to make "unemployed discrimination" illegal.

A recent Huffington…

The Sacramento Business Journal recently reported that lawsuits under the Federal Labor Standards Act (FLSA) have risen 33% over the past three years. With that in mind, it seems like a good time to discuss when contractors must be paid overtime.

First, let's…

Like it or not, it looks like the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), otherwise known as "Obamacare," is here to stay. Even if the upcoming election is a Republican landslide, experts say it is unlikely that the healthcare reform will be completely repealed.

One of the upcoming provisions that is worrying employers the most is the employer mandate. Under this provision, employers with 50 or more full-time employees will be required to provide…

E-Verify is an online system that checks information provided on an employee's Form I-9 (Employment Eligibility Verification) against data from the Social Security Administration and Department of Homeland Security.  

While the system isn't mandatory for all employers, there is federal legislation pending to change that.  And…

There is a huge demand for healthcare professionals as the American population continues to age.  To achieve workforce flexibility, many healthcare providers are filling their open positions with contractors. This creates a tremendous opportunity for recruiters who can work this niche.

If you place healthcare contractors, though, you will want to take extra care to qualify healthcare contractors and take steps to protect your firm from liability. Failing to handle…

If you are running your own back-office for contract placements, there are certain things you need to do when a contractor starts working to ensure you have accurate payroll records and that you are in compliance with any applicable employment laws.

For each new contractor, be sure to:

1. Verify their name and Social Security Number. This is important for W-2 reporting. If you make a mistake, the contractor's earnings could be applied to the…

When adding contract staffing services to your existing direct-hire recruiting business, you must first decide if you are going to handle the back-office tasks (payroll, benefits administration, employment paperwork, invoicing, etc.) in-house or if you are going to outsource them.

Many small firms or "one-man shows" choose the latter. After all, it can take the average recruiter one to six months to get set up to handle contract staffing issues in-house.  Not only…

The unemployment rate may be slowly going down, but there is one number that seems to keep going up: the number of Americans who have been out of work for six months or longer. 

The number of…

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is no longer accepting H-1B petitions for fiscal year (FY) 2013 because the cap  was reached on June 11. 

H-1B visas allow employers to hire foreign workers with specialized…

Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a direct-hire executive, and able to leap big projects in a single bound, it's the Supertemp!

That is the term that the Harvard Business Review used in its recent article, "The Rise of the Supertemp," to refer to a growing group of executives who are…

The Department of Labor (DOL)  has released some new mobile and Internet Browser apps designed to help employees, but recruiters may find a couple of them helpful when negotiating pay rates.

These new apps are the product of online and mobile develpment…

A happy contractor helps make a happy client. But according to Staffing Industry Analysts' recent survey of contractors, there is one thing that is making them decidedly unhappy: lack of communication.

In particular, the contractors surveyed felt that they did not know what to expect on…