James Flanders

Employment

What about the consultants?

I was the outsourcing manager at a major magazine publisher in Manhattan and was downsized at the end of March. How come more is not said in the press about the enormous amount of 1099 "consultants" being let go. These people in my opinion still employees of their client companies and made up are large part of the head count at investment banks, law firms and publishing firms etc. and have lost their jobs in huge numbers and not been counted since they don't show up or qualify for unemployment rolls because of their 1099 status. The firm were I managed easily had about 1/3 of the staff on as 1099 status, there numbers were in the thousands. Could this be why the your WNYC news anchors last Friday were so surprised that the NYC unemployment numbers looked better than what they expected? Anyway, I used to run on of the largest staffing companies in NYC for 18 years and been in the "staffing and employment business" for about 25 years in NYC and never seen the employment picture this grim. I hope folks will begin realizing we need a jobs program soon in this country.