Agencies offer temps crappy terms because they can

In good times in Temp Town, rates go up as the labor market becomes tighter. We haven't seen much in the way of good times since about mid-2008, and rates have fallen to what they were when I started doing this work 11 years ago. Lately, we've been seeing a fair number of projects with rates about another 12% below that. And the market is so shitty at the moment, I've applied for two of them. Hell, I can't even get a shitty job right now. Sounds like a lot of temps are chasing not enough jobs. Shitty jobs, at that, with low rates and no overtime. Agencies do this, of course, because they can. Those shitty projects are getting staffed. Not as quickly, maybe, as the marginally less-shitty projects that offer the current shitty market rate and no OT, but they are getting staffed. Pride goeth before the fall, bitches, and even temps gotta eat. So the crappy offers keep coming, and we keep taking them. Alas.