Vania Hudson-Perkins recently turned down a marketing position at a major university to remain at her temp job with a wireless provider. Not only did she say no to a job much closer to home that offered benefits such as tuition reimbursement, she also rejected a full-time position to hang on to her temporary one.

Her decision paid off. Last week, the company where she had temped since February offered her a full-time job with more career-advancement opportunity. She will also be earning about $65,000 a year, much more than she would have made at the university.

"I knew there was a possibility," says Ms. Hudson-Perkins, a 37-year-old Country Club Hill, Ill., resident. "My recruiter told me, 'Be patient, I'm sure they're going to make you an offer.' "

Now that the employment picture is getting brighter, many job seekers face a question: Should they set their sights on full-time positions or be willing to consider temporary ones?

Temporary-staffing agencies say they have already seen some job seekers leaning away from temporary positions. "With the economy picking up, people are saying, 'Maybe I'll hold off on temporary work because I'm looking for a full-time opportunity,"' says Tom Gimbel, president of LaSalle Network, a temporary-staffing agency in Chicago.

Here are some things to consider about temporary work:

The rise in so-called temp-to-perm hiring. As Ms. Hudson-Perkins's experience shows, many companies today are hiring people on a temporary basis, in what amounts to a tryout, before making a full-time offer. "The idea of conversion has been around for years but gained real popularity in the late 1990s," says Jeffrey A. Joerres, chairman and CEO of staffing firm Manpower Inc. A talent shortage then led companies to hire more people on a temporary basis, but now the practice lets companies be more cautious about hiring candidates, Mr. Joerres says.

In some cases, companies contract with agencies to hire a person full time after a temporary stint; in other cases, employees get an offer after impressing managers. Last year, Manpower placed 431,000 people into temporary positions in the U.S., and it says its temp-to-perm hiring rate is in line with the industry average of about 40%.

More higher-paying temporary jobs are available in a variety of industries. In the past six months, temporary-staffing-company payrolls have outpaced many other sectors. U.S. staffing firms employed an average of 2.3 million temporary workers per day in the first quarter this year, up 200,000 from the year-earlier period, according to the American Staffing Association in Alexandria, Va. "The fastest growth of the segment has been at the upper end, and we expect that to continue," says Richard Wahlquist, president and CEO of American Staffing Association.

Part of the growth has been spurred by people eager to take short-term assignments "with a large corporation to help them build their career," says Sean Bisceglia, CEO of Corporate Project Resources Inc. in Chicago. The company places marketing professionals who typically earn between $70,000 and $100,000 into temporary positions. This year, roughly 35% of people Corporate Project Resources placed went on to accept full-time offers at the same company, up from 25% last year, Mr. Bisceglia adds.

Temporary jobs let you get a foot in the door. Colleen Hjellum was placed last September by LaSalle Network into a temporary position at THK America, a Schaumburg, Ill., manufacturer. Her six-day contract was extended for months, and she recently landed a full-time administrative-assistant position with the company. Ms. Hjellum, 52, believes she wouldn't have learned about the opportunity if she wasn't already temping there. "Their policy is to post jobs internally and I just tried to get my feelers out," she says.

On the downside, temp assignments can be spotty and benefits carry a high price. "Virtually every staffing company" offers benefits these days, according to Mr. Walhquist. Yet purchasing health insurance through a plan offered by an agency can cost more than it would if you worked full time at a big corporate employer.

Higher costs for health insurance and job instability have helped turn Alicia Nieva-Woodgate off short-term assignments. Since being laid off in July 2001, she has held a string of public-relations positions with companies, one through a staffing agency. For a three-month stretch, Ms. Nieva-Woodgate, who is 36 and lives in San Francisco, didn't work at all. "I need the stability [of a full-time position]," she says.

Some career experts say that as job tenures have shrunk along with workers' perceptions of job security and loyalty in recent years, the distinction between temporary and full-time jobs has blurred. And many advise job seekers not to restrict their search to one type of position or the other.

"You have to be working on all cylinders when you're working on a job campaign," says Judy Rosemarin, president of Sense-Able Strategies Inc., a New York executive-coaching company. Few employers today frown on temporary experience, she adds.

"They don't care," Ms. Rosemarin says. "They want to know what you can do for me."