Technological Change, On-Site Outsourcing, and Its Consequences for Stratification

Debra Hevenstone, University of Michigan

Technological innovation has not only changed the distribution of jobs in the economy, eliminating work that can be automated; it has also changed the organizational structure of employment. Technical advances have made it both desirable and possible to hire on-site service workers through contractors. This paper uses both an agent based model and empirical evidence from the Current Population Survey to examine how this structural change has diffused, and suggests the possible implications of this change for labor market stratification.