Week 4 Blog: Percarious Work in the U.S

Precarious Work, Insecure Workers: Employment Relations in Transition

The article I have chosen to review is written by Professor Arne Kalleberg of the University of North Carolina, and was published in the American Sociological Review 2009. This article addresses the emergence and growth of precarious work in the U.S since the 1970s. It outlines the evidence of the growth of precarious work in the U.S and its consequences on the national economy. Kalleberg describes precarious work as “employment that is uncertain, unpredictable, and risky from the point of view of the worker” (Kalleberg 2009, p.2), and outlines the importance of understanding the new workplace arrangements and employment relationship that promotes this form of work.

Kalleberg outlines five factors, which are evidence that precarious work is growing in the U.S.  These factors are as follows:

1. Decline in attachment to employers

• By this Kalleberg is suggesting that the length of time that workers spend in one particular job, or for one particular employer, is declining.

2. Increase in long-term unemployment

• Rates of job growth remain low and challenges in manufacturing industries remain difficult, specifically after the U.S recession in 2001.

3. Growth in perceived job insecurity

• Workers are increasingly worried about losing their jobs, mainly because the consequences have become much more severe in the current economic climate.

4. Growth of non-standard work arrangements

• In line with neoliberal practice, employers have pursued ways in which to easily adjust their workforce in response to market mechanisms such as supply and demand.
• They seek to achieve this by moving to more non-standard arrangements such as contracting and temporary employment.

5. Increasing shift of risk from employers to employees

• Increases in defined contribution pension and health insurance sees employees paying more of the premium

Kalleberg goes on to outline the consequences of this increase in precarious work, suggesting that it creates greater economic inequality, insecurity, and instability. Consequences focusing more on the individual worker see that this increase in precarious work is a causal factor in wider social problems, gender and race disparities, civil rights and economic justice, family insecurity and work-family imbalances, identity politics, and immigration and migration.

This article provides a great insight into how the nature of work has changed in the U.S since the 1970s, and just what aspects of the employment relationship and the economic environment have driven this transformation towards increasingly precarious work. With precarious employment being one of the front running issues in employment relations in many developed countries around the world it is important to understand not only the effects on the employer but also how the workers are affected. Employers aim to achieve the flexibility to compete in the ever-fluctuating international market, but this article brings to light that they also need to provide security and stability for their employees. Where this article could improve would be to provide some alternative solutions or direction whereby sustainable international competitiveness is achieved while at the same time removing the precarious nature of the employment relationship that is becoming more and more evident in todays workplaces around the globe.

REFERENCE

Kalleberg, AL 2009, ‘Precarious Work, Insecure Workers: Employment relations in transition’, American Sociological Review, vol. 74, no. 1, p. 1-22.