5 Signs You're Becoming a Disposable Worker

Who Are the 'Disposable Workers'?

MIT labor economist Paul Osterman has identified a growing segment of the workforce that he calls "disposable workers." This unsettling category describes employees who exist on the periphery of their organizations—present enough to collect a paycheck, but absent from the company's long-term plans for investment, development, or advancement.

Osterman breaks disposable workers into three distinct groups: contractors, freelancers, and what he terms "marginal employees." The marginal category is perhaps the most surprising because these workers are technically regular employees. They are held at arm's length by their firms, left without job security, denied skill training, and excluded from promotion opportunities.

This reality affects far more people than the typical conversation about insecure work suggests. While much public attention focuses on gig economy participants like Uber drivers or DoorDash couriers, Osterman argues that the disposable workforce is a much larger phenomenon. When all three categories are combined, they represent more than 35% of the American workforce.

The prevalence of marginal workers challenges the assumption that job insecurity is primarily a blue-collar or low-wage problem. Many low-wage service workers toil in marginal roles, but so do white-collar professionals. Adjunct university faculty, staff attorneys at law firms, and countless part-time employees all fit the description. These are educated, skilled professionals who show up every day, do their jobs, and yet have no realistic path forward within their organizations.

Osterman's research, which he presents in his book Disposable Workers: The Transformation of Employment, is based in part on an original survey of more than 6,000 workers. His estimates suggest that more than 55 million members of the U.S. workforce are in employment arrangements characterized by limited security, minimal benefits, and few advancement opportunities.

The scale of the shift is what makes his findings so striking. "We're not becoming a gig economy; we're becoming a disposable one," Osterman says. That distinction matters because gig workers at least understand their arrangement—they know they are independent contractors with no ties to a company. Marginal workers, by contrast, are employees in name but are treated as expendable in practice.

Meet the 'Marginal Worker'

Within the broader disposable workforce, marginal workers form a particularly significant segment. Osterman estimates that approximately 17% of U.S. employees—roughly one in six—fall into this category. They are technically part of an organization but have little connection to its traditional career structure.

To understand who these workers are, consider a few concrete examples. An adjunct professor who has taught for years but will never be considered for tenure is a marginal worker. A staff attorney handling routine legal work with no realistic path to partnership fits the description. So does a part-time employee who works consistently but receives no training and has few opportunities to advance.

What separates these workers from traditional employees is not necessarily their performance or ability. Many marginal workers are highly competent and productive. The defining factor is the employer's relationship with them. The company has made a deliberate—or at least implicit—decision not to invest in these employees, not to develop their skills, and not to move them up a career ladder.

"Marginal workers are employees who have no career prospects at their organizations," Osterman explains. This distinction could become increasingly important for anyone evaluating a job in 2026. The question is no longer simply, Do I have a job? It might be, Does this company see me as somebody worth developing? Those are two very different forms of employment.

For workers, recognizing which category they fall into matters enormously. A job that offers a paycheck but nothing else—no training, no mentorship, no upward mobility—may keep you employed today while leaving you unprepared for tomorrow. As the workforce continues to shift, understanding the difference between a job and a career could be the most important professional assessment you make.

Why Companies Are Creating More ‘Disposable’ Jobs

The rationale behind this shift is straightforward from a business perspective. Permanent employees represent a long-term commitment that includes raises, benefits, training, career development, and ongoing management resources. In contrast, contractors, freelancers, part-timers, and other marginal workers offer businesses the flexibility to scale their workforce up or down without incurring those same obligations.

According to Osterman’s research, many companies have concluded that this flexibility, combined with lower labor costs, outweighs the benefits of maintaining a deeply committed workforce. However, this approach carries a psychological and organizational cost that is often overlooked.

When workers perceive that their employer has no long-term investment in their future, they have little reason to invest in the organization’s success. Osterman found that contractors and marginal workers reported being less concerned about their company’s performance and less willing to go above and beyond their basic duties.

The underlying dynamic is not difficult to understand. Commitment is typically reciprocal. When employees feel interchangeable, expendable, or permanently relegated to the sidelines, employers should not be surprised when loyalty fades along with the traditional career ladder.

AI Could Accelerate The ‘Disposable Worker’

Artificial intelligence introduces a new dimension to this trend. Much of the public debate around AI and employment focuses on how many jobs the technology will eliminate outright. Yet the first significant disruption may be far subtler. AI could drive widespread career detachment long before mass unemployment arrives. Millions of people may remain employed, but fewer companies may be willing to make long-term commitments to their professional growth.

Osterman believes AI could accelerate disposable employment because businesses remain uncertain about exactly how many workers they will need and which skills will be most valuable in the coming years. “I think this trend is going to be exacerbated by AI,” he says, noting that uncertainty over future staffing needs gives employers a strong incentive to rely on workers they can quickly add or remove as circumstances change.

That argument gains additional weight when considered alongside Deloitte’s State of AI in the Enterprise 2026 research. Deloitte reports that 36% of surveyed companies expect at least 10% of their jobs to be fully automated within a single year, while 82% anticipate that level of automation within three years. Yet strikingly, 84% have not redesigned their jobs around AI capabilities.

As discussed previously in the context of the “human premium,” AI is not making human talent irrelevant. Instead, it is making routine skills cheaper. As machines assume more cognitive tasks, distinctly human abilities such as judgment, curiosity, credibility, empathy, communication, and critical thinking become increasingly valuable.

AI can generate options and flag risks, but a human still must own the decision, the diagnosis, or the final outcome. The best protection for workers is no longer simply performing today’s job well. It is demonstrating the human capabilities an employer will continue to need as that job evolves and transforms.

5 Signs You’re Becoming a ‘Disposable Worker’

It is wise for employees to look beyond their current paycheck and consider whether their role offers a genuine future. Certain patterns can indicate that an employer views you as easily replaceable. While no single indicator is definitive, recognizing these warning signs early can help you make informed career decisions.

• Your responsibilities grow, but your career doesn’t. You are consistently given more work and greater operational duties, yet this increased workload does not come with a clearer path to promotion or a more strategic role within the company.
• Training and development go to other employees. You are repeatedly passed over for professional growth opportunities such as conferences, certifications, mentorship programs, or high-visibility projects that could raise your profile.
• Nobody discusses your future. Performance reviews and check-ins focus exclusively on your current output and immediate targets. There is no conversation about where you could be in one, three, or five years, or how you fit into the company’s long-term plans.
• You are excluded from important networks. Strategic decisions, informal leadership conversations, and relationship-building activities happen around you rather than with you. You may find out about major changes after they are already decided.
• Your employer invests in your tasks, not your talent. Management seems primarily interested in what you can produce today rather than the skills you could develop to contribute tomorrow. They optimize your role for efficiency but not for your growth.

It is important to remember that experiencing one of these signs does not prove an employer considers you disposable. However, if you notice a repeated pattern across multiple categories, it is a signal that warrants serious attention.

Don’t Just Ask Whether Your Job Is Safe

For much of the last century, career security was defined by having a permanent contract rather than a temporary one. That definition is no longer sufficient in the modern workplace. It is entirely possible to be permanent on paper while being marginal in practice.

Instead of asking a simple yes-or-no question about job safety, employees should ask more revealing questions about their employer’s intentions. Consider these inquiries:

• Does this organization genuinely promote from within, or do most senior roles get filled by external hires?
• Who receives the most meaningful training and development opportunities?
• What has happened to the people who previously held this role? Did they advance, or did they stagnate or leave?
• How are career paths changing because of AI and automation?
• What specific skills will make someone valuable to this organization three years from now?

The answers to these questions can reveal far more than a job title and salary ever will. The emerging workplace divide may not simply be between those who have jobs and those who lose them to artificial intelligence. It could increasingly be between workers whose companies continue to invest in their long-term futures and those who are retained only for as long as they remain convenient. In the AI era, being on the right side of that divide could become one of the most important definitions of true job security.