Intern nation

by Ross Perlin

Traces the increase in interns in businesses from the late twentieth to the early twenty first century and discusses the lack of benefits and legal securities granted to interns in comparison to the profits firms bank by exploiting their roles in the workplace. Every year, between 1 and 2 million Americans work as interns. They famously shuttle coffee in a thousand newsrooms, congressional offices, and Hollywood studios, but they also deliver aid in Afghanistan, build the human genome, and pick up garbage. They are increasingly of all ages, and their numbers are growing fast--from 17 percent