Between 20,000 and 30,000 civilians work for the United States in Iraq as private military contractors, part of a civilian work force that equals or exceeds the more than 160,000-person military force there.
Following last month's announcement that it would make some of its contractors part-time employees, grocery delivery service Instacart announced this morning that it's now offering its contractor "personal shoppers" the option to apply for employee status in Atlanta, Miami and Washington, D.C.
But the specialization trend isn't limited to the food services industry — Curtis Lee, CEO of on-demand parking app Luxe, has acknowledged that "as we grow, we have realized the need to assert more direct control over the customer experience," which inspired the decision to offer Luxe's contractors part-time employee status (though not likely to happen until some time next year).
Instead, they're freelancers, temps, independent contractors, part-timers and the self-employed.
They finally went to the lowest-bidding contractor as part payment for the job of removing them.
But the contract was awarded to a minority contractor as part of the department's "disadvantaged business enterprise" program.
Security screening at the Houses of Parliament is being outsourced to a private contractor as part of a raft of cost-cutting measures.
The surveillance flights in Africa, which are mostly run by private contractors, are part of a classified Pentagon program called Creek Sand.
Joseph Collins, a deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Defense, says that the attacks against aid workers and people employed by foreign contractors are part of a well-defined strategy.
Last year the country's ministry of defence reportedly paid an excess of $200m to fuel contractors as part of a kickback scheme using money destined for reconstruction, resulting in a number of senior ministry officials being fired.
