Contract company employees more educated than traditional workers

In 1999, the proportion of contract company workers aged 25-64 with a college degree—38.9 percent—was well above the proportion for traditional workers (31.1 percent).

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Another 31.9 percent of contract company employees had at least some college but less than a bachelor's degree, as did 28.3 percent of workers in traditional arrangements. In total, about seven-tenths of contract company employees had some college or a college degree compared with approximately six-tenths of traditional workers.

"Contract company workers" are employed by a company that provides their services to others under contract; they are usually assigned to only one customer and work at the customer's worksite.

These data are a product of a February supplement to the monthly Current Population Survey. Find out more in "Characteristics of and preference for alternative work arrangements, 1999," by Marisa DiNatale, Monthly Labor Review, March 2001.