For more than a year, the investigative news site ProPublica has been publishing a series of stories concerning temporary work in the U.S. The wide-ranging subjects, from regulations and policy to individual profiles of people struggling to make a living, paint a stark portrait of how critical temporary work is to the success of U.S. business, and how unfair it often is to the people who supply the labor.

Among the posts:

“Hummus Maker Warned of ‘Extreme Safety Risk’ Before Temp Worker’s Death,” reported in conjunction with The Boston Globe, shows how the employer knew about a safety problem but did nothing about it.

“A Modern Day ‘Harvest of Shame” explains how blue-collar temporary workers are abused much like migrant farmworkers were before the modern farm labor movement brought the issue to light.

“Temp Worker Regulations Around the World” illustrates weak U.S. labor protection for temp workers in comparison with the rest of the developed world.

“U.S. Lags Behind World in Temp Worker Protection” explains “permatemping,” another practice in which the U.S. engages while other countries limit the length of temporary jobs, guarantee equal pay and restrict dangerous work.

“Taken for a Ride: Temp Agencies and ‘Raiteros’ in Immigrant Chicago” depicts how prominent U.S. companies and large temp agencies benefit from — and tacitly collaborate with — an underworld of labor brokers called “raiteros,” who charge workers fees that push their compensation below minimum wage.

Read the whole series on ProPublica.org.