Isn't it probably also due to the fact that the UK offers unemployment and healthcare benefits that far surpass what is offered here in the States? So that there is a safety if at the end of the contract you are left with no offer.
I expect so, but you can also get double your salary with tax breaks when contracting. So it would be easy to cover private health care etc with the additional money.
That view is bit outdated, more applicable to the Labour era of 1997-2010. The UK is not the welfare state that it once was. The NHS is in pieces and you have to beg for scraps of welfare.
not for Single People it doesn't JSA lasts 6 months and you have to jump though a lot of hoops.