The number of temporary workers in Japan surged 19.3 percent in fiscal 1999 from a year earlier to 1,067,949, according to the Labor Ministry.

The expansion stemmed largely from the new Manpower Dispatching Business Law, which took effect last December, the ministry said in a recent report.

The law liberalized the field of temporary work by widening the scope of jobs that can hire such employees. Before the law, only 26 fields were eligible for temp staff.

During the fiscal year that ended March 31, 3,352 job-placement agencies registered and dispatched workers with short-term contracts as agency employees to client businesses with temporary openings.

The number is up 10.8 percent from the previous year.

In addition, 6,326 agencies maintained permanent workers for temporary positions with client businesses, down 9.4 percent.

Altogether, the number of job-placement agencies was 9,678, down 3.3 percent, the ministry said.

The number of customers enlisting help from the first category of agencies rose 0.7 percent to 241,819, while those who used the second category of agencies dropped 49.6 percent to 22,620.

Combining the two categories, the number of customers comes to 264,439, a decline of 7.2 percent.

The first category of agencies posted 1.082 trillion yen in sales, up 1.1 percent. The second category of agencies posted 378.4 billion yen, down 24.4 percent.

Total sales in the temp staff businesses came to 1.46 trillion yen, down 7 percent.