Businesses Lease Cars, Office Space, Furniture and … Workers

Number of workers of employee leasing firms soared 686% from 1992 to 2017. Learn more in this America Counts story.

America Counts: Stories Behind the Numbers Businesses Lease Cars, Office Space, Furniture and … Workers Since the industrial revolution, businesses have strived to streamline operations to maximize employee productivity and minimize costs. They embraced automation, a popular way to modernize workflows and production processes, but it was not enough. Enter California businessman Marvin R. Selter, who in the late 1960s popularized a concept that gave businesses a way to avoid employment taxes and other costs: lease — not hire — employees. Read More How would it work? Leasing firms would provide the leased workforce and handle all the human resources, payroll, and employee benefit functions for the client, but the client would still maintain day-to-day management of the workers. The concept took off. Between 1992 and 2017, the number of people working for employee leasing firms skyrocketed 682% from 341,884 to 2.7 million. Continue reading to learn more about: Growth in employee leasing Profile of the nation's PEOs Leased employees are counted differently Who's leased and who's not? Which data should we use? Help us spread the word about America Counts. Share this story on social media or forward it to a friend. Share This You May Be Interested What is a Small Business? "Establishment and Firm Size" data from the 2017 Economic Census show how important small businesses are to the U.S. economy. Learn More About America Counts America Counts tells the stories behind the numbers in a new inviting way. It features stories on various topics such as families, housing, employment, business, education, economy, emergency preparedness, health, population, income and poverty. Contact our Public Information Office for media inquiries or interviews. Don't miss an America Counts story! Subscribe here.

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