What is a contract employee?
A contract employee is someone who is "contracted" for some
specific work, rather than being "in house". Once the terms of the
contract are fulfilled, the employment is terminated. For instance,
a high tech firm may have software developers who are permanent
employees, working in house to produce their software. But from
time to time they may contract salesmen to sell their software once
it is produced. The contract may stipulate a commission, a quota,
and a time frame for the work to be done, or whatever else.
It's a funny term because all legal employee-employer
relationships involve a contract. But as it is meant here, a
contract employee is generally a specialist or a short term
employee hired on terms that are different than the normal full
time employees of the company.