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Pages 1-14

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From page 1...
... These concerns are heightened by the perceived fracturing of relationships between workers and employers, the loss of safety net protections and benefits to workers, the growing importance of access to skills and education as the impacts of new technologies and automation are felt, and the market-based pressure that companies face to produce short-term profits, sometimes at the expense of long-term value. These issues, as well as related ones such as wage stagnation and job quality, are often associated with alternative work arrangements (AWAs)
From page 2...
... People often value being their own boss and the scheduling flexibility that some AWAs afford. And, from the perspective of businesses, companies may use independent contractors not just to lower costs, but also to tap into skills pools with the agility required to maintain competitiveness.
From page 3...
... the comparative strengths and weaknesses of the CWS in the context of complementary survey and nonsurvey data sources. THE ROLE OF THE CWS IN MEASURING ALTERNATIVE WORK ARRANGEMENTS; RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE ITERATIONS OF THE SURVEY The CWS measures arrangements concerning the main job of everyone who reports having worked during the survey reference period in the basic monthly CPS.
From page 4...
... In the current CWS, other than a single question asked of unemployed and discouraged workers, questions are asked only of those who are identified in the basic monthly CPS as having been employed in the prior week. One major survey design feature that could affect which respondents are within the scope of the CWS concerns the timing and regularity of respondents' work in relation to the survey's 1-week reference period.
From page 5...
... At least a subset of the questions asked about primary jobs should also be asked about the second jobs, whether those second jobs are identified in the basic monthly CPS or (as recommended above) in response to a question about additional work asked on the CWS: It would be desirable to ask the full battery of CWS questions about all secondary jobs held either during the reference week or during the longer 1-month time frame.
From page 6...
... Job Types: Categories of Alternative Work Arrangements The CWS permits the classification of a respondent's main job into one of several mutually exclusive work categories:3 • Temporary agency worker; • Contract company worker, other than a temporary agency worker; • Independent contractor; • Employee, not in an alternative work arrangement; or • Self-employed, not independent contractor. This categorization captures whether a worker is an employee of the organization for whom he or she is performing work.
From page 7...
... Recent legislative initiatives, such as California's new law establishing a strict test for independent contractor classification, which might result in the r ­ eclassification of independent contractors such as those working for Uber and Lyft as employees, are suggestive of future policy initiatives. One challenge that household surveys have in measuring self-­ mployment e and subcategories of self-employment, such as independent contractors, is that respondents vary in their interpretation and understanding of what these terms mean.
From page 8...
... There is also evidence that webmediated options are displacing more traditional job arrangements, as in the case of restaurants using web platforms to fill very-short-run staffing needs in lieu of hiring workers directly. A decision must be made about which web-mediated activities should be considered within the scope of the CWS.
From page 9...
... On the positive side, for some workers, the employment fluidity of such work arrangements has added a welcomed element of flexibility for them to earn income. This dichotomy -- the implication of both insecurity and flexibility -- ­ points to the importance of measuring and tracking job characteristics that directly affect the well-being of workers.
From page 10...
... . Other Information Needed to Understand the Implications of Alternative Work Arrangements for Workers A key goal of the CWS is to facilitate an understanding of the relationship between specific work arrangements or job characteristics and worker
From page 11...
... The current CWS asks temporary workers, temporary agency workers, on-call workers, day laborers, and self-employed/independent contractors whether they would prefer a "non-contingent" or different job arrangement. The existing line of questions on individuals' preferences for work in alternative arrangements provides information that is potentially valuable but, for reasons described in Chapter 3, difficult to interpret.
From page 12...
... Another set of questions in the CWS asks each respondent what they or other household members were doing prior to becoming an independent contractor, a temporary agency worker, an on-call worker, or a contract company worker. Because of the retrospective nature of the question, the data quality is likely to be poor.
From page 13...
... demonstrating how varying definitions affect measures of work arrangements and, closely related to that, how question wording and respondent interpretation affect estimates; (2) testing the sensitivity of measurement constructs used in surveys, including things like time-reference periods; and (3)
From page 14...
... The capacity to improve the measurement of AWAs, as well as other economic statistics, will be influenced by how effectively multiple data sources can be drawn from and combined. The limitations of any single information source underscore the value of commercial and administrative data as complements to government surveys.


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