82% of employees want to work more flexibly, new research shows after statistics this week confirmed that flexible working arrangements, including temporary staffing, reached a new high last year. The German federation of private employment agencies (BAP) therefore said that temporary employment remains key to keeping the labour market going, especially in times of acute skill shortages.

Market researcher GfK found that the majority of employees in Germany want to have more flexible work arrangements while official statistics recently indicated that particularly single parents would like to do so.

As part of the BAP’s national campaign on temporary staffing, the association raised awareness of the issue with the president Volker Enkerts saying that temporary employment offers a wealth of opportunities for those people. “The diversity of our staffing buyers allows temporary workers to find jobs that cater for individual needs,” he said.

Mr Enkerts also emphasised that more and more staffing firms are developing specialised programmes which allow groups of people, such as those who have been absent from the labour market due to family commitments, to re-enter the jobs market.

ManpowerGroup Germany, for instance, is piloting a new programme in Berlin training single parents to work in childcare centres, where the country is experiencing a growing skill shortage and temporary work has been on the increase. This has even led to a recent media upheaval after it emerged that some childcare centres were accused of wage dumping and underpaying temporary staff.