MIT Sloan Professor Emeritus Paul Osterman’s book Disposable Workers: The Transformation of Employment, is forthcoming from Harvard University Press. Slated for publication in August 2026, Disposable Workers draws on Osterman's research into the decline in traditional employment arrangements—and the accompanying growth in the number of contract employees, freelancers, and what Osterman calls "marginal workers." ("Marginal workers," according to Osterman, are technically W-2 employees but do not have opportunities for training or advancement.) The three categories combined, he finds, now make up more than a third of the U.S. workforce.
Osterman (pictured above) is a Professor Emeritus of Human Resources and Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management, as well as a former Co-Director of the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER).
"Disposable Workers identifies the profoundly important new development of marginal employees who have no real prospects of stability or career advancement, and who far outnumber the much-discussed ‘gig workers.’ Even at companies we think of as the best employers, the growing ranks of employees who churn through these marginalized jobs is an important and underappreciated factor in the loss of the American Dream."
—Peter Cappelli, author of Our Least Important Asset
