A company (or individual) that as a non-employee provides products or services to a contractor to help fulfill their contract. It can also be more general referring to workers who are non-employees and contracted for short term tasks.

 

"We use subcontractors to provide services that we don't need every day."

 

"Now that we have pretty much chosen the general contractor to design and build our new location, we want to know what subcontractors they will be using on the job."

 

"Our software firm can handle the larger contract projects because we have a hefty list of subcontractors who we can call in when we don't have enough full time resources."

 

"Using sub contractors can be a cost effective way of managing building projects."