There's scads of *work* to be done. There's just a shortage of *jobs*, where a job = work + salary. In many places, "a full time job" = work + salary + reasonably-reliable promise of benefits, and those are even more scarce. The short term focus of the current investing climate pushes many businesses to try to show apparent profits as quickly as possible. So it's better for them to make their current people work overtime (unpaid, if at all possible, paid if necessary), or hire temporary contractors, than to make the long term financial commitment of hiring more people.