‘As all jobs become more temporary, this volume offers a vital, global portrait of the wellspring of this job-degrading "flexibilization": the temporary help agency industry itself. This sobering volume sounds a much-needed alarm about a future work trajectory that must be avoided at all costs.’
Chris Tilly, Director, UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, USA

Despite its geographic and industry expansion as part of the ongoing globalisation of service activity, temporary agency work (TAW) is relatively understudied.This edited collection provides a comprehensive overview of TAW, in an international context, revealing how the TAW industry is intertwined with the changing relationship between the state, corporations and labour unions at the institutional-structural level, and also the perceptions and experiences of ordinary workers in everyday practice. By combining global and local forces, macro and micro levels of analysis, and theoretical and empirical investigations, the book offers fresh insights into recurring issues of labour flexibility and inequality, making practical suggestions and facilitating fruitful cross-national collaborations.