Global Labor Market Intermediaries: The Power of Leading Staffing Firms

Abstract

Since the 1970s, labor markets have been neoliberalized worldwide. In this context, labor market intermediation has been increasingly privatized and the temporary staffing industry (tsi) has undertaken a process of internationalization and diversification. This article seeks to discuss how and to what extent leading staffing firms have become powerful global labor market actors while diversifying their staffing services internationally. Building on the literature on the internationalization/globalization of the tsi in the 2000s, the article outlines a theoretical perspective for understanding current leading staffing firms as global labor market intermediaries (glmi) and discusses the key empirical results of two case studies conducted during 2020 on the international diversification of the two main glmi s: Randstad and the Adecco Group. The article suggests that glmi s have developed this strategy to expand and, consequently, secure their “classification power” in order to increase labor market flexibilization and the consequent informalization and precarization of work.