| That's not about SW devs, more about data entry / dataset labeling / "turkers". I did saw something that you described long time ago at a multinational company, where the employees were mostly managers and team leads, and most devs were contractors. But they gradually moved to a model were they have R&D centers in a lower cost regions were the developers are hired as local employees. Advantages of hiring SW devs/engineers as contractors at big public companies: 1. they can be hired and fired with the short notice (elasticity) 2. the HR process is less scrupulous and/or bureaucratic (since it's not a permanent position) 3. usually contractors are still can be hired, even when there is a freeze on hiring new employees 4. it can be treated as a trial period for potential new employees 5. most contractors (i.e. those hired via agency, not self-employed) see employee status as a coveted promotion 6. public companies don't count contractors as employees but as service providers, so Revenue-per-employee / Profit-per-employee will be much higher |
these are human beings you're talking about.
> most contractors (i.e. those hired via agency, not self-employed) see employee status as a coveted promotion
there are non-hire agreements between vendor and the clients.
whatever kind of euphemistic spin people want to put on it, it's a form of exploitation.