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Altamimi, Hala & Qiaozhen Liu (2025): Lower cost at a cost? The effects of flexible labour on non-profit operational outcomes. In: Public Management Review, S. 1-34. DOI:10.1080/14719037.2025.2526533

Abstract

"The rise of flexible labour promises cost savings and flexibility. However, empirical research examining the organizational consequences of this employment model remains limited. Our analysis of panel data (2008–2018) on non-profits in the U.S. shows that flexible labour negatively influences operational outcomes. This effect is pronounced when these workers are involved in core organizational functions. The findings suggest that the increasing reliance on flexible labour promotes a short-term transactional employment approach incompatible with the sector’s institutional, motivational, and relational context. We suggest avenues for better aligning flexible labour use with non-profits organizational values and mission." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Helppie-McFall, Brooke, Eric Parolin & Basit Zafar (2025): Career expectations and outcomes: Evidence (on gender gaps) from the economics job market. In: Journal of Public Economics, Jg. 248. DOI:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2025.105437

Abstract

"This paper investigates gender gaps in long-term career expectations and outcomes of PhD candidates in economics. For this purpose, we match rich survey data on PhD candidates (from the 2008–2010 job market cohorts) to public data on job history and publication records through 2022. We document four novel empirical facts: (1) there is a robust gender gap in career expectations, with females about 10 percentage points less likely to ex-ante expect to get tenure or publish regularly; (2) the gender gap in expectations is remarkably similar to the gap observed for academic outcomes; (3) expectations are similarly predictive of outcomes for males and females, and (4) gender gaps in expectations can explain about 22 % and 14 % of the ex-post gaps in tenure and publications, respectively. In addition, leveraging variation in relationship status at the time expectations are reported, we show that: conditional on gender, (1) expectations regarding tenure and publications do not differ systematically by relationship status, and (2) the predictive power of expectations does not differ by the relationship status of the individual." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.) ((en))

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Kvart, Signild, Isabel Cuervo, Virginia Gunn, Wayne Lewchuk, Kim Bosmans, Letitia Davis, Astrid Escrig-Piñol, Per-Olof Östergren, Eva Padrosa, Alejandra Vives, Alessandro Zaupa, Emily Q. Ahonen, Valentina Álvarez-López, Mireia Bolíbar, Ignacio Diaz, Mariana Gutiérrez-Zamora, Lars Ivarsson, Mireia Julià, Carles Muntaner, Patricia O'Campo, Marisol E. Ruiz, Kristian Vänerhagen, Emilia F. Vignola, David Vílchez, Mattias Vos, Theo Bodin & Sherry L. Baron (2025): Labour and social protection gaps impacting the health and well-being of workers in non-standard employment: An international comparative study. In: PLoS ONE, Jg. 20. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0320248

Abstract

"Background: World economies increasingly rely on non-standard employment arrangements, which has been linked to ill health. While work and employment conditions are recognized structural determinants of health and health equity, policies aiming to protect workers from negative implications predominantly focus on standard employment arrangements and the needs of workers in non-standard employment may be neglected. The aim of this study is to explore workers’ experiences of gaps in labour regulations and social protections and its influence on their health and well-being across 6 countries with differing policy approaches: Belgium, Canada, Chile, Spain, Sweden, and the United States. Methods: 250 semi-structured interviews with workers in non-standard employment were analyzed thematically using a multiple case-study approach. Results: There are notable differences in workers’ rights to protection across the countries. However, participants across all countries experienced similar challenges including employment instability, income inadequacy and limited rights and protection, due to policy-related gaps and access-barriers. In response, they resorted to individual resources and strategies, struggled to envision supportive policies, and expressed low expectations of changes by employers and policymakers. Conclusions: Policy gaps threaten workers’ health and well-being across all study countries, irrespective of the levels of labour market regulations and social protections. Workers in non-standard employment disproportionately endure economic risks, which may increase social and health inequality. The study highlights the need to improve social protection for this vulnerable population." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Maffie, Michael David & Hector Hurtado (2025): The Enshittification of Work: Platform Decay and Labour Conditions in the Gig Economy. In: BJIR. DOI:10.1111/bjir.70004

Abstract

"This study investigates the mechanisms by which gig platforms degrade labor conditions over time, building on the concept of platform decay, or ‘enshittification’, initially developed in the context of social media platforms. In this article, we draw on 30 interviews with long-term gig workers in the ride-hail and grocery delivery sectors, offering insights into how these companies shift from offering attractive working conditions to exploiting labor as these services develop market power via network effects. We identify three mechanisms through which gig companies claw back value from workers over time: burden shifting (transferring operational costs to workers), feature addition and alteration (increasing the demands on workers), and market manipulation (reducing worker bargaining power). We then explore how workers respond to platform decay, finding that workers adopt three responses: effort recalibration , multi-homing and navigating the changing conditions through what we term toxic resilience . This study contributes to the gig work literature by developing a framework to explain how working conditions in the gig economy improve or degrade over time. In doing so, this article provides a framework for organizing the growing constellation of labour research on gig workers." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons) ((en))

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Abraham, Katharine G., John C. Haltiwanger, Claire Y. Hou, Kristin Sandusky & James Spletzer (2024): Driving the Gig Economy. (NBER working paper / National Bureau of Economic Research 32766), Cambridge, Mass, 48 S.

Abstract

"Using rich administrative tax data, we explore the effects of the introduction of online ridesharing platforms on entry, employment and earnings in the Taxi and Limousine Services industry. Ridesharing dramatically increased the pace of entry of workers into the industry. New entrants were more likely to be young, female, White and U.S. born, and to combine earnings from ridesharing with wage and salary earnings. Displaced workers have found ridesharing to be a substantially more attractive fallback option than driving a taxi. Ridesharing also affected the incumbent taxi driver workforce. The exit rates of low-earning taxi drivers increased following the introduction of ridesharing in their city; exit rates of high-earning taxi drivers were little affected. In cities without regulations limiting the size of the taxi fleet, both groups of drivers experienced earnings losses following the introduction of ridesharing. These losses were ameliorated or absent in more heavily regulated markets." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Abraham, Katharine G., Brad Hershbein, Susan N. Houseman & Beth C. Truesdale (2024): The Independent Contractor Workforce: New Evidence on Its Size and Composition and Ways to Improve Its Measurement in Household Surveys. In: ILR review, Jg. 77, H. 3, S. 336-365. DOI:10.1177/00197939241226945

Abstract

"Good data on the size and composition of the independent contractor workforce are elusive. The authors carried out a series of focus groups to learn how independent contractors speak about their work. Based on those findings, they designed and fielded a telephone survey to elicit more accurate and complete information on independent contractors. Roughly 1 in 10 workers who initially reported working for an employer on one or more jobs (and thus were coded as employees) were independent contractors on at least one of those jobs. Incorporating these miscoded workers into estimates of main job work arrangements nearly doubles the share who are independent contractors to approximately 15% of all workers. Taking these workers into account substantively changes the demographic profile of the independent contractor workforce. Probing in household surveys to clarify a worker’s employment arrangement and identify all low-hours work is critical for accurately measuring independent contractor work." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Boeri, Tito & Pietro Garibaldi (2024): Temporary Employment in Markets with Frictions. In: Journal of Economic Literature, Jg. 62, H. 3, S. 1143-1185. DOI:10.1257/jel.20231655

Abstract

"Temporary employment has spiked in OECD countries over the last 40 years and is now a common feature of their labor market landscape. A large body of empirical literature examines the spread of temporary employment, but no systematic review and interpretation of its findings in light of economic theory exists. This survey aims at filling this gap by interpreting the key empirical results based on the predictions of the macro models in markets with frictions developed to address specific features of temporary employment. Revisions of workhorse models used so far to analyze temporary employment are also suggested." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Créchet, Jonathan (2024): A model of risk sharing in a dual labor market. In: Journal of monetary economics, Jg. 147. DOI:10.1016/j.jmoneco.2024.103591

Abstract

"In OECD countries, the labor market features a coexistence of open-ended, permanent jobs subject to strict employment protection and fixed-term, temporary jobs. This paper studies a search-and-matching model with risk-averse workers and dynamic employment contracts subject to limited commitment. In equilibrium, permanent and temporary jobs coexist when the match quality is sufficiently dispersed: firing costs generate insurance gains implying that permanent contracts are optimal for high-quality matches. Consistent with recent empirical evidence, quantitative analysis of the model shows that temporary contracts crowd out permanent jobs and do not generate employment gains." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2024 Elsevier) ((en))

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Gonos, George (2024): The Expanding Domains of Degraded Work in the United States: Constructing a More Comprehensive Typology of Non-standard Employment Arrangements. In: Critical Sociology, S. 1-24. DOI:10.1177/08969205241283938

Abstract

"The spread of non-standard employment (NSE) is widely considered to have contributed to the deterioration of labor standards. Yet, in the United States, there is no definitive roster of non-standard work arrangements and no reliable estimate of the size of the non-standard workforce. For over 25 years, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has produced artificially low estimates of employers’ use of ‘alternative employment arrangements’. Its 2018 Contingent Work Supplement (CWS) reported that since 1995 the proportion of US workers in these arrangements had declined. This article proposes a more systematic framework for understanding NSE in the United States and fleshes out a more comprehensive typology better suited toward addressing the needs of policymakers and labor activists. It fundamentally reorients the study of NSE by recognizing that so-called ‘alternative’ arrangements are abusive and more aptly understood as degraded work arrangements (DWAs). The article then explores the key categories of DWAs and provides a deeper analysis of one group, dissociative arrangements, that enable the flourishing use of ‘non-employee’ workers. Concluding sections address the undertheorized state of this subject area and the challenge of union organizing in fractured labor markets." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Manning, Alan & Graham Mazeine (2024): Subjective Job Insecurity and the Rise of the Precariat: Evidence from the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States. In: The Review of Economics and Statistics, Jg. 106, H. 3, S. 748-761. DOI:10.1162/rest_a_01196

Abstract

"There is a widespread belief that work is less secure than in the past, that an increasing share of workers are part of the “precariat.” It is hard to find much evidence for this in objective measures of job security, but perhaps subjective measures show different trends. This paper shows that in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, workers feel as secure as they ever have in the past 30 years. This is partly because job insecurity is very cyclical and (pre-COVID) unemployment rates very low, but there is also no clear underlying trend towards increased subjective measures of job insecurity. This conclusion seems robust to controlling for the changing mix of the labor force, and it is true for specific subsets of workers." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © MIT Press Journals) ((en))

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Reynolds, Jeremy, Julieta Aguilar & Reilly Kincaid (2024): More than a side-hustle: Satisfaction with conventional and microtask work and the association with life satisfaction. In: Social science research, Jg. 122. DOI:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2024.103055

Abstract

"Gig platforms promise attractive, flexible ways to earn supplemental income. Academics, however, often describe gig work as low-quality work, suggesting that it is less satisfying than conventional work. In this paper, we present a novel comparison of satisfaction with gig microtask work and conventional work among MTurk workers doing both. We also examine how satisfaction with gig and conventional work relate to life satisfaction. On average, respondents report less satisfaction with microtasks than with conventional work. Nevertheless, roughly one-third of respondents are more satisfied with microtask work. Furthermore, microtask work lowers overall life satisfaction, but only among “platformdependent” respondents (those who rely on platform income). Specifically, structural equation modeling reveals a case of moderated mediation: “platform dependence” reduces life satisfaction by lowering satisfaction with microtask work while also strengthening the latter's connection to life satisfaction. Taken together, our findings support and extend the theory of platform dependence." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2024 Elsevier) ((en))

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Arita, Shin, Kikuko Nagayoshi, Hirofumi Taki, Hiroshi Kanbayashi, Hirohisa Takenoshita & Takashi Yoshida (2023): Legitimation of earnings inequality between regular and non-regular workers: A comparison of Japan, South Korea, and the United States. In: International Journal of Comparative Sociology, Jg. 64, H. 6, S. 658-680. DOI:10.1177/00207152231176422

Abstract

"This study explores functions of labor market institutions in perpetuating earnings gap between different categories of workers with focusing on people’s views of earnings gap between regular and non-regular workers in Japan, South Korea, and the United States. An original cross-national factorial survey was conducted to measure the extent to which respondents admit earnings gap among workers with different characteristics. We found that Japanese and South Korean respondents tended to justify the earnings gap between regular and non-regular workers. In Japan, non-regular-worker respondents accepted the wide earnings gap against their economic interests, which was explained by assumed difference in responsibilities and on-the-job training opportunities. Specific institutional arrangements contribute to legitimating earnings gap between different categories of workers by attaching status value to the categories." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Banerjee, Rupa, Laura Lam & Danielle Lamb (2023): Temporary talent: Wage penalties among highly educated temporary workers in Canada. In: The Journal of Industrial Relations, Jg. 65, H. 2, S. 185-210. DOI:10.1177/00221856231151964

Abstract

"Temporary employment (TE) arrangements have become increasingly common in Canada among both high- and low-skilled workers. In this study, we examine the prevalence and earnings effects of TE across education levels with a specific focus on highly educated workers. We also examine the earnings effects of TE across the earnings distribution. We find that higher levels of schooling are negatively associated with the probability of TE. However, the earnings discounts for temporary work are significant and increase in magnitude for individuals with higher levels of educational attainment. For highly educated workers at the top end of the earnings distribution, the discount associated with being in a temporary job is large enough to substantially reduce, although not entirely negate, the sizeable earnings premiums associated with higher levels of education." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Breman, Jan (2023): A Short History of the Informal Economy. In: Global Labour Journal, Jg. 14, H. 1, S. 21-39. DOI:10.15173/glj.v14i1.5277

Abstract

"When coined about half a century ago, employment in the informal economy was discussed by what it was not: formal. Addressed as a sector of the urban workforce, its definition was a summing up of descriptive traits which made manifest how people in the Global South, deprived of most or all means of production, earned their livelihood by selling their labour power. Investigating their predicament zoomed in on the restructuring of peasant economies and societies to post-peasant ones. The anticipated upward mobility, which was supposed to be boosted by the bargaining power of collective action, did not materialise. Rather than expanding formalisation of labour relations, the reverse took place. The small segment which had been promoted to and protected by regular and regulated employment was subjected to informalisation. In the onslaught of neo-liberal capitalism from the last quarter of the twentieth century onwards, labour flexibilisation and casualisation not only intensified in the Global South but also spread to the Global North. The new policies ended the brokerage which the nation–state once developed to mediate between the interests of capital and labour, leading to a worldwide shrinking of public institutions, space and representation. While the debate with regard to informality has remained firmly focused on labour and employment, I argue that corporate capital in collusion with étatist authority has not only effectuated the deregulation of paid work but also abandoned the legal code of formality ending in a state of lawlessness for the people at the bottom of the pile. In the reconfiguration, both politics and governance are next to big business as stakeholders in a regime of informality erosive of equality, democracy, civil rights, solidarity and shared well-being for humankind at large." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Elvery, Joel A., C. Lockwood Reynolds & Shawn M. Rohlin (2023): Employer Wage Subsidy Caps and Part-Time Work. In: ILR review, Jg. 76, H. 1, S. 189-209. DOI:10.1177/00197939221102865

Abstract

"Using tract-level US Census data and triple-difference estimators, the authors test whether firms increase their use of part-time workers when faced with capped wage subsidies. By limiting the maximum subsidy per worker, such subsidies create incentives for firms to increase the share of their payroll that is eligible for the subsidy by increasing use of part-time or low-wage workers. Results suggest that firms located in federal Empowerment Zones in the United States responded to the program’s capped wage subsidies by expanding their use of part-time workers, particularly in locations where the subsidy cap is likely to bind. Results also show a shift toward hiring lower-skill workers." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Makarevich, Alex (2023): Workplace gender segregation in standard and non-standard employment regimes in the US labour market. In: BJIR, Jg. 61, H. 3, S. 697-722. DOI:10.1111/bjir.12730

Abstract

"This study provides a comprehensive analysis of workplace gender segregation in non-standard employment in the United States. It compares segregation in standard and three non-standard work arrangements paying special attention to independent contracting – a segment of contingent employment representing novel and consequential developments in work organization. In line with the prediction that inequality is lower in more marketized sectors of the labour market, my analyses based on a representative sample of the contemporary US workforce reveal that workplace gender segregation is lower in non-standard employment. I further find that the degree of segregation corresponds to the degree of attachment to the employer and that segregation is lower in segments of the economy with higher market competition. Overall, my analyses indicate that a shift towards alternative work arrangements can reduce overall workplace segregation but does not lead to uniform desegregation across occupations, and that institutions of employment and market pressures faced by employers play significant roles in the effect of alternative work arrangements on workplace segregation." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons) ((en))

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Wang, Jia (2023): Mothers' nonstandard work schedules and children's behavior problems: Divergent patterns by maternal education. In: Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, Jg. 84. DOI:10.1016/j.rssm.2023.100784

Abstract

"Increasing evidence has demonstrated that nonstandard work schedules are more prevalent among the less-educated population, and mothers' nonstandard work schedules have adverse influences on children's development. Yet, we have known relatively little about how such impacts differ across the educational distribution. Using data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study, random and fixed effects regression results revealed a general “pattern of disadvantage” in the sense that detrimental influences of mothers regularly working nonstandard schedules on children's behavior were concentrated among those born to mothers without high school education, a “truly disadvantaged” group in the contemporary United States. In addition, regular nonstandard schedules appeared to play a mixed role in the behavioral development of children who had college-educated mothers, depending on the specific type of nonstandard schedule. These findings suggest that children born to the least-educated mothers experience compounded disadvantages that may reinforce the intergenerational transmission of disadvantages and also illustrate that negative implications of nonstandard work schedules for child wellbeing may extend to the more advantaged group." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2023 Elsevier) ((en))

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Choper, Joshua, Daniel Schneider & Kristen Harknett (2022): Uncertain Time: Precarious Schedules and Job Turnover in the US Service Sector. In: ILR review, Jg. 75, H. 5, S. 1099-1132. DOI:10.1177/00197939211048484

Abstract

"The authors develop a model of cumulative disadvantage relating three axes of disadvantage for hourly workers in the US retail and food service sectors: schedule instability, turnover, and earnings. In this model, exposure to unstable work schedules disrupts workers’ family and economic lives, straining the employment relation and increasing the likelihood of turnover, which can then lead to earnings losses. Drawing on new panel data from 1,827 hourly workers in retail and food service collected as part of the Shift Project, the authors demonstrate that exposure to schedule instability is a strong, robust predictor of turnover for workers with relatively unstable schedules (about one-third of the sample). Slightly less than half of this relationship is mediated by job satisfaction and another quarter by work–family conflict. Job turnover is generally associated with earnings losses due to unemployment, but workers leaving jobs with moderately unstable schedules experience earnings growth upon re-employment." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Haapanala, Henri, Ive Marx & Zachary Parolin (2022): Robots and Unions: The Moderating Effect of Organised Labour on Technological Unemployment. (IZA discussion paper 15080), Bonn, 31 S.

Abstract

"We analyse the moderating effect of trade unions on industrial employment and unemployment in countries facing exposure to industrial robots. Applying random effects within-between regression to a pseudo-panel of observations from 28 advanced democracies over 1998-2019, we find that stronger trade unions in a country are associated with a greater decline in the industry sector employment of young and low-educated workers. We also show that the unemployment rates for low-educated workers remain constant in strongly unionised countries with increasing exposure to robots, whereas in weakly unionised countries, low-educated unemployment declines with robot exposure but from a higher starting point. Our results point to unions exacerbating the insider-outsider effects of technological change within the industrial sector, which however is not fully passed on to unemployment." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Katz, Lawrence F., Jonathan Roth, Richard Hendra & Kelsey Schaberg (2022): Why Do Sectoral Employment Programs Work? Lessons from WorkAdvance. In: Journal of labor economics, Jg. 40, H. S1, S. S249-S291. DOI:10.1086/717932

Abstract

"This paper examines the evidence from randomized evaluations of sector-focused training programs that target low-wage workers and combine up-front screening, occupational and soft-skills training, and wraparound services. The programs generate substantial and persistent earnings gains (12%–34%) following training. Theoretical mechanisms for program impacts are explored for the WorkAdvance demonstration. Earnings gains are generated by getting participants into higher-wage jobs in higher-earning industries and occupations, not just by raising employment. Training in transferable and certifiable skills (likely underprovided from poaching concerns) and reductions of employment barriers to high-wage sectors for nontraditional workers appear to play key roles." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Peckham, Trevor, Brian Flaherty, Anjum Hajat, Kaori Fujishiro, Dan Jacoby & Noah Seixas (2022): What Does Non-standard Employment Look Like in the United States? An Empirical Typology of Employment Quality. In: Social indicators research, Jg. 163, H. 2, S. 555-583. DOI:10.1007/s11205-022-02907-8

Abstract

"Despite significant interest in the changing nature of employment as a critical social and economic challenge facing society—especially the decline in the so-called Standard Employment Relationship (SER) and rise in more insecure, precarious forms of employment—scholars have struggled to operationalize the multifaceted and heterogeneous nature of contemporary worker-employer relationships within empirical analyses. Here we investigate the character and distribution of employment relationships in the U.S., drawing on a representative sample of wage-earners and self-employed from the General Social Survey (2002–2018). We use the multidimensional construct of employment quality, which includes both contractual (e.g., wages, contract type) and relational (e.g., employee representation and participation) aspects of employment. We further employ a typological measurement approach, using latent class analysis, to explicitly examine how the multiple aspects of employment cluster together in modern labor markets. We present eight distinct employment types in the U.S., including one resembling the historical conception of the SER model (24% of the total workforce), and others representing various constellations of favorable and adverse employment features. These employment types are unevenly distributed across society, in terms of who works these jobs and where they are found in the labor market. Importantly, women, those with lower education, and younger workers are more likely to be in precarious forms of employment. More generally, our typology reveals limitations associated with binary conceptions of standard vs. non-standard employment, or insider–outsider dichotomies envisioned within dual labor market theories." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © Springer-Verlag) ((en))

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Baird, Matthew, John Engberg & Italo A. Gutierrez (2021): Outcome Mechanisms for Improved Employment and Earnings through Screened Job Training: Evidence from an RCT. (IZA discussion paper 14435), Bonn, 32 S.

Abstract

"This study fills a gap in the literature on the outcome mechanisms in which successful training programs improve employment and earnings, such as raises on the job or longer job duration. The city of New Orleans implemented a job training program as an RCT for low-income workers. Individuals in the treatment group were more likely to work in the target industries and move out of low-skill industries. In the first 9 months after training, the treatment group experienced higher earnings with new employers and with existing employments. After 9 months, the effects were driven by higher probability of staying with an employer (with now-higher earnings). Findings encourage patience on the part of trainees and the government, as workers may not find their stable, target employment immediately. Government may also want to find ways to improve early connections with employers after training." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Haidar, Julieta & Miska Keune (Hrsg.) (2021): Work and Labour Relations in Global Platform Capitalism. (ILERA Publication series), Cheltenham: Elgar, 288 S. DOI:10.4337/9781802205138

Abstract

"This engaging and timely book provides an in-depth analysis of work and labour relations within global platform capitalism with a specific focus on digital platforms that organise labour processes, known as labour platforms. Well-respected contributors thoroughly examine both online and offline platforms, their distinct differences and the important roles they play for both large transnational companies and those with a smaller global reach." (Author's abstract, © Edward Elgar Publishing) ((en))

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Leupp, Katrina, Sabino Kornrich & Julie Brines (2021): 'Stuck' in nonstandard schedules? Married couples' nonstandard work schedules over the life course. In: Community, work & family, Jg. 24, H. 1, S. 20-38. DOI:10.1080/13668803.2019.1619517

Abstract

"Though employment outside of regular daytime business hours has remained high since the 1990s, trends in nonstandard employment schedules over the life course and across households remain under-examined. The consequences of nonstandard scheduling extend to workers, their spouse, and children, urging greater attention to the distribution of nonstandard schedules at the couple-level. Using all three waves of the National Survey of Families and Households, this article examines the prevalence, persistence and sociodemographic patterns of rotating and night employment at the couple-level, following 913 married couples in the United States as they aged from the late 1980s to early 2000s. Though aging reduced the likelihood that couples had one or both spouses working nonstandard hours, roughly one-third of couples with nonstandard scheduling continued to experience nonstandard schedules during the subsequent observation period. Nonstandard schedules were stratified by education and race/ethnicity. This stratification persisted as couples aged, even after controlling for prior work schedules. Findings suggest that disadvantaged couples remain disproportionately exposed to schedules associated with negative outcomes for family well-being across the life course." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Liu, Shimeng & Xi Yang (2021): Human capital externalities or consumption spillovers? The effect of high-skill human capital across low-skill labor markets. In: Regional Science and Urban Economics, Jg. 87. DOI:10.1016/j.regsciurbeco.2020.103620

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Macartney, Hugh, Eric Nielsen & Viviana Rodriguez (2021): Unequal worker exposure to establishment deaths. In: Labour Economics, Jg. 73. DOI:10.1016/j.labeco.2021.102073

Abstract

"It is well understood that adverse economic shocks affect workers nonuniformly. We explore a new channel through which unequal employment outcomes may emerge during a downturn: displacement through the extensive margin of establishment deaths. Intuitively, workers who are concentrated in less resilient establishments prior to an economic decline will be disproportionately affected by its onset. Using rich administrative employment and establishment data for the United States, we show that Black workers bore the brunt of the Great Recession in terms of within-industry employment changes arising from establishment deaths. This finding has important implications for the evolution of worker disparities during future downturns." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2022 Elsevier) ((en))

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O'Brady, Sean (2021): Fighting precarious work with institutional power: Union inclusion and its limits across spheres of action. In: BJIR, Jg. 59, H. 4, S. 1084-1107. DOI:10.1111/bjir.12596

Abstract

"Research shows that union inclusion is critical to resisting precariousness, yet the role of institutional power is not adequately addressed. Through an investigation of eight retailers in four countries, this study uniquely examines how inclusive union strategies, cost competition and institutional power interact in different ‘spheres of action’. In the product market sphere, unions struggle to prevent labour cost competition between firms from eroding working conditions. In the production sphere, unions struggle to prevent labour cost competition between workers in a single firm from eroding working conditions. This article finds that multi‐level sources of institutional power are a precursor to effective union inclusion and articulating action towards threats from cost competition. I thereby argue that union efforts to resist precarious work are contingent on access to power from institutions. The article concludes with reflections on how institutional power relates to other forms of power." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons) ((en))

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Chafe, David & Lisa Kaida (2020): Harmonic dissonance : Coping with employment precarity among professional musicians in St John's, Canada. In: Work, employment and society, Jg. 34, H. 3, S. 407-423. DOI:10.1177/0950017019865877

Abstract

"Precarious employment literature has addressed a myriad of occupations increasingly characterized by employment uncertainty and reduced commitment between workers and employers due to short-term contracts and self-employment, with particular attention given to creative industries and the gig economy in recent years. The authors argue that research on creative industries also requires consideration of the role of place in the experience of employment insecurity and career commitment. This article focuses on self-employed musicians in the mid-sized city of St John's, Canada. Interviews with 54 musicians draw attention to coping strategies for long periods of low pay and employment insecurity. These strategies include downplaying competition and conflict, acquiring higher education and changing career. It is argued that population size and location of the community where work is based have implications on such coping strategies and on career longevity." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Hepp, Rolf, David Kergel & Robert Riesinger (Hrsg.) (2020): Precarized society. Social Transformation of the welfare state. (Prekarisierung und soziale Entkopplung - transdisziplinäre Studien), Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 274 S.

Abstract

"This book provides international and transdisciplinary perspectives on Hyperprecarity and Social Structural Transformations in European Societies, USA and Russia enforced through other special transformation processes such as digitalisation, migration and demographic change. It has been observed that precarity and social insecurity do not refer any longer only to certain groups of the society such as unemployed people or to those ones who are ‘traditionally’ more in need of social benefit etc. but it accompanies and affects greater parts of the society, particularly those sections of the middleclass who conceive their social identity merely via their work ethics. Consequentially new forms of social exclusion are being producing taxing the traditional social cohesion in European societies due to the demand of new forms of flexibility and mobility from the working people. This process can be termed with the notion 'Hyperprecarisation'. This book contains contributions from scientists all over Europe, Russia and the USA, who are members of the SUPI network “Social Uncertainty, Prequarity, Inequality”." (Publisher information, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Inanc, Hande (2020): Varieties of Precarity: How Insecure Work Manifests Itself, Affects Well-Being, and Is Shaped by Social Welfare Institutions and Labor Market Policies. In: Work and occupations, Jg. 47, H. 4, S. 504–511. DOI:10.1177/0730888420934539

Abstract

"Precarious Lives addresses one of the most important developments in employment relations in the neoliberal era: increase in labor precarity and the subsequent decline in employee well-being. Drawing on data on social welfare institutions and labor market policies in six rich democracies, the author shows that work is less precarious, and workers are happier, when institutions and policies provide job protection, and put in place support systems to buffer job loss." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Kang, Hyunju, Jaevin Park & Hyunduk Suh (2020): The rise of part-time employment in the great recession: Its causes and macroeconomic effects. In: Journal of macroeconomics, Jg. 66. DOI:10.1016/j.jmacro.2020.103257

Abstract

"During the Great Recession, the U.S. economy witnessed a substantial rise in part-time employment for a sustained period. We extend the New Keynesian unemployment model by Galí et al. (2012) to allow substitutions between full-time and part-time labor, and estimate the model’s parameters by using the Bayesian method. Inour model, households and firms can optimally allocate full-time and part-time labor, and disturbances exist in part-time labor supply (household disutility from part-time labor) and part-time labor demand (firms’efficiency to use part-time labor). As for the Great Recession, the initial increase in part-time employment at the outset of the financial crisis is mostly explained by the rise of the risk premia; the persistently high level of part-time employment in the later period is mainly explained by an exogenous increase in part-time labor supply. A part-time labor supply shock also explains a significant portion of slow recovery in the gross wage during the recession, as the shock lowers the part-time wage and the proportion of full-time workers in total employment. Notably, the results from our model suggest that though the transition from full-time to part-time jobs contributed to mitigating the sharp contraction in total employment and labor force during the Great Recession, it played only a limited role in relieving recessionary pressure." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku, © 2020 Elsevier) ((en))

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Appelbaum, Eileen, Arne Kalleberg & Hye Jin Rho (2019): Nonstandard work arrangements and older Americans, 2005-2017. Washington, DC, 25 S.

Abstract

"Nonstandard or alternative employment relations refer to employment by a temporary help agency or contract company or as an on-call worker or day laborer. We refer to these nonstandard employment relations (which involve an employer and employee) and independent contracting collectively as nonstandard or alternative work arrangements in this report. Contingent workers are workers who do not expect their job to last or who report that their jobs are temporary. Contingent workers and workers in alternative work arrangements are measured separately. Both have become increasingly prominent in theoretical and policy thinking about how employment has changed in recent years in the United States and other post-industrial countries.
Until recently, only relatively poor information on the extent of contingent work and nonstandard work arrangements and how this has changed during the past several decades has been available. The May 2017 Contingent Worker Supplement (CWS) - conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) 12 years after the last CWS and 22 years after the first -provides an opportunity to examine how contingent work and nonstandard work arrangements have changed over the last two-plus decades. This report examines these changes between 2005 and 2017, with special attention to how older workers - ages 55 to 65 and 65+ - have fared." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Blanchflower, David G. (2019): Not working: Where have all the good jobs gone? Princeton Univ. Press 440 S.

Abstract

"Don't trust low unemployment numbers as proof that the labor market is doing fine - it isn't. Not Working is about those who can't find full-time work at a decent wage - the underemployed - and how their plight is contributing to widespread despair, a worsening drug epidemic, and the unchecked rise of right-wing populism. In this revelatory and outspoken book, David Blanchflower draws on his acclaimed work in the economics of labor and well-being to explain why today's postrecession economy is vastly different from what came before. He calls out our leaders and policymakers for failing to see the Great Recession coming, and for their continued failure to address one of the most unacknowledged social catastrophes of our time. Blanchflower shows how many workers are underemployed or have simply given up trying to find a well-paying job, how wage growth has not returned to prerecession levels despite rosy employment indicators, and how general prosperity has not returned since the crash of 2008.
Standard economic measures are often blind to these forgotten workers, which is why Blanchflower practices the 'economics of walking about' - seeing for himself how ordinary people are faring under the recovery, and taking seriously what they say and do. Not Working is his candid report on how the young and the less skilled are among the worst casualties of underemployment, how immigrants are taking the blame, and how the epidemic of unhappiness and self-destruction will continue to spread unless we deal with it." (Publisher's text, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Broten, Nicholas, Michael Dworsky & David Powell (2019): How do alternative work arrangements affect income risk after workplace injury? (NBER working paper 25989), Cambrige, Mass., 61 S. DOI:10.3386/w25989

Abstract

"Alternative work arrangements, including temporary and contract work, have become more widespread. There is interest in understanding the effects of these types of arrangements on employment and earnings risk for workers and the potential for existing social insurance programs to address this risk. We study employment and earnings risk in the context of workplace injuries among temporary and contract workers. We link administrative workers' compensation claims to earnings records to measure the employment and earnings risk posed by workplace injuries, comparing labor market outcomes after injury between temporary and contract workers and direct-hire workers injured doing the same job. We use a triple-difference identification strategy to isolate the effect of alternative work arrangements. We find that temporary workers have significantly lower probabilities of employment post-injury relative to similar direct-hire workers; temporary workers also have more severe earnings losses, which persist for at least three years after injury. This difference in income risk cannot be explained by differences in employment dynamics between temporary and direct-hire workers. We find evidence that the additional earnings losses suffered by temporary workers are offset by workers' compensation benefits, suggesting that the program provides insurance for the incremental risk faced by temporary workers." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Datta, Nikhil (2019): Willing to pay for security: A discrete choice experiment to analyse labour supply preferences. (CEP discussion paper 1632), London, 60 S.

Abstract

"This paper investigates the extent to which labour supply preferences are responsible for the marked rise in atypical work arrangements in the UK and US. By employing vignettes in a discrete job choice experiment in a representative survey, I estimate the distribution for preferences and willingness -to-pay over various job attributes. The list of attributes includes key distinguishing factors of typical and atypical work arrangements, such as security, work-related benefits, flexibility, autonomy and taxation implications. The results are indicative that the majority of the population prefer characteristics associated with traditional employee -employer relationships, and this preference holds even when analysing just the sub- sample of those in atypical work arrangements. Additionally, preferences across the UK and US are very similar, despite differences in labour market regulations. Rather than suggesting that labour supply preferences have contributed to the increase in atypical work arrangements, I find that the changing nature of work is likely to have significant negative welfare implications for many workers." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Even, William E. & David A. Macpherson (2019): The affordable care act and the growth of involuntary part-time employment. In: ILR review, Jg. 72, H. 4, S. 955-980. DOI:10.1177/0019793918796812

Abstract

"This study tests whether the employer mandate under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) increased involuntary part-time (IPT) employment. Using data from the Current Population Survey between 1994 and 2015, the authors find that IPT employment in 2015 exceeded predictions based on economic conditions and the structure of the labor market. Of greater importance, using difference-in-difference methods, they find that the increase in the probability of IPT employment since passage of the ACA was greater in occupations with a larger share of workers affected by the mandate. The authors' estimates suggest that approximately 700,000 additional workers without a college degree are in IPT employment as a result of the ACA employer mandate." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Liu, Kai (2019): Wage risk and the value of job mobility in early employment careers. In: Journal of labor economics, Jg. 37, H. 1, S. 139-185. DOI:10.1086/698898

Abstract

"This paper shows that job mobility is a valuable channel that employed workers use to mitigate bad labor market shocks. I estimate a model of wage dynamics jointly with a dynamic model of employment and job mobility. The key feature of the model is the specification of wage shocks at the worker-firm-match level, for workers can respond to these shocks by changing jobs. I find that, relative to the variance of individual-level shocks, the variance of match-level shocks is large and the consequent value of job mobility is substantial, particularly for workers whose match-specific wages are low." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Stecy-Hildebrandt, Natasha, Sylvia Fuller & Alisyn Burns (2019): 'Bad' jobs in a 'good' sector: Examining the employment outcomes of temporary work in the Canadian public sector. In: Work, employment and society, Jg. 33, H. 4, S. 560-579. DOI:10.1177/0950017018758217

Abstract

"Canada's public sector has historically provided good jobs, but its increasing reliance on temporary workers has important implications for job quality. We compare temporary and permanent workers in the public sector on three dimensions of job quality (employment security, access to benefits and income trajectories) to assess whether favourable conditions in the public sector are extended to temporary employees, or whether polarization between temporary and permanent workers is the norm. We find provisions related to employment security and access to leave benefits in public sector collective bargains are clearly two-tiered. Drawing on nationally representative panel data, we also find a persistent earnings gap between matched permanent and temporary employees. Further, although temporary public sector workers out-earn their private sector counterparts, the earnings disadvantage relative to matched permanent workers is more pronounced and longer lasting in the public sector. Underlying this difference is greater persistence in temporary employment within the public sector." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Borowczyk-Martins, Daniel & Etienne Lalé (2018): The ins and outs of involuntary part-time employment. (IZA discussion paper 11826), Bonn, 20 S.

Abstract

"We develop an adjustment procedure to construct U.S. monthly time series of involuntary part-time employment stocks and flows from 1976 until today. Armed with these new data, we provide a comprehensive account of the dynamics of involuntary part-time work. Transitions from full-time to involuntary part-time employment dominate this dynamics, spiking up at recessions' onsets and persisting well into recovery periods. On the other hand, weaknesses in job creation contribute little to these fluctuations. Our data and findings are relevant to inform a broader assessment of labor market performance and to develop models of cyclical labor adjustment." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Borowczyk-Martins, Daniel & Etienne Lalé (2018): The welfare effects of involuntary part-time work. In: Oxford economic papers, Jg. 70, H. 1, S. 183-205. DOI:10.1093/oep/gpx033

Abstract

"Employed individuals in the USA are increasingly more likely to move to involuntarily part-time work than to unemployment. Spells of involuntary part-time work are different from unemployment spells: a full-time worker who takes on a part-time job suffers an earnings loss while remaining employed, and is unlikely to receive income compensation from publicly provided insurance programmes. We analyse these differences through the lens of an incomplete-market, job-search model featuring unemployment risk alongside an additional risk of involuntary part-time employment. A calibration of the model consistent with US institutions and labour market dynamics shows that involuntary part-time work generates lower welfare losses relative to unemployment. This finding relies critically on the much higher probability to return to full-time employment from part-time work. We interpret it as a premium in access to full-time work faced by involuntary part-time workers, and use our model to tabulate its value in consumption-equivalent units." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Gelepithis, Margarita & Anne-Marie Jeannet (2018): The political consequences of outsider labour market status in the United States. A micro-level study. In: Social policy and administration, Jg. 52, H. 5, S. 1019-1042. DOI:10.1111/spol.12277

Abstract

"This article contributes to recent research that seeks to understand the political consequences of 'outsider' labour market status. There is an emerging consensus that labour market outsiders have systematically different policy preferences and display systematically different political behaviour to securely employed 'insiders' in Europe. Yet the political consequences of outsider status in the USA are less clear. They may be expected to differ from those that have been documented in the European context, because: (1) the USA is characterized by low employment protection of insiders; and (2) there is evidence that Americans are more reluctant than Europeans to hold governments responsible for personal economic hardship. We therefore use the General Social Survey to examine how outsider labour market status is related to voting behaviour and to social policy preferences in the USA. We find that the concept of 'labour market outsider' - as conventionally operationalized - holds little explanatory power in the American context. Disaggregating the outsider category, our results suggest that the political consequences of outsider labour market status may be contingent on individual beliefs about government responsibility." (Author's abstract, Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons) ((en))

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Haines, Victor Y. III, Pascall Doray-Demers & Vivianne Martin (2018): Good, bad, and not so sad part-time employment. In: Journal of vocational behavior, Jg. 104, H. February, S. 128-140. DOI:10.1016/j.jvb.2017.10.007

Abstract

"With increases in part-time employment, the need to understand its diverse forms is growing. The aim of this study is to develop a typology of part-time employment on the basis of role occupancy and work characteristics. Latent class analysis was applied to data from a sample of 1826 part-time workers. The pattern of conditional probabilities suggests four types of part-time employment: Good, bad, student, and transition. Further analysis indicates that gender, age, education, seniority, and work experience are correlates of being in one or other types of part-time employment. Finally, good part-time employment is associated with higher job satisfaction and health although better health is reported in student part-time employment." (Author's abstract, © 2018 Elsevier) ((en))

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Kalleberg, Arne L. & Stephen P. Vallas (Hrsg.) (2018): Precarious work. (Research in the sociology of work 31), Bingley: Emerald, 466 S.

Abstract

"This volume presents original theory and research on precarious work in various parts of the world, identifying its social, political and economic origins, its manifestations in the USA, Europe, Asia, and the Global South, and its consequences for personal and family life.
In the past quarter century, the nature of paid employment has undergone a dramatic change due to globalization, rapid technological change, the decline of the power of workers in favor of employers, and the spread of neoliberalism. Jobs have become far more insecure and uncertain, with workers bearing the risks of employment as opposed to employers or the government. This trend towards precarious work has engulfed virtually all advanced capitalist nations, but unevenly so, while countries in the Global South continue to experience precarious conditions of work.
This title examines theories of precarious work; cross-national variations in its features; racial and gender differences in exposure to precarious work; and the policy alternatives that might protect workers from undue risk. The chapters utilize a variety of methods, both quantitative statistical analyses and careful qualitative case studies. This volume will be a valuable resource that constitutes required reading for scholars, activists, labor leaders, and policy makers concerned with the future of work under contemporary capitalism." (Publisher information, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Pullmann, Ashley (2018): Gendered pathways from school to work: The association between field of study and non-standard employment outcomes in Canada. In: Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, Jg. 58, H. December, S. 44-53. DOI:10.1016/j.rssm.2018.10.001

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Starzmann, Maria Theresia (2018): Das Elend des Wissensprekariat. In: Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik, Jg. 63, H. 10, S. 105-112.

Abstract

Die Autorin setzt sich kritisch mit der zunehmenden Gewinnorientierung deutscher und amerikanischer Universitäten auseinander, die sich auch im Umgang mit ihren Beschäftigten zeigt. Die Lehrtätigkeit wird immer weiter in sogenannte Gigs ausgelagert: 'befristete Verträge, Teilzeitjobs und Werkverträge, die hierarchisch verwaltet werden. Das führt nicht nur zu einer immer weiteren Spreizung zwischen Verwaltungs- und Lehrstellen, sondern auch zu einer neuen Form der Ausbeutung kognitiver Arbeit'. Bei immer weiter steigenden Studiengebühren sinkt die Qualität des Studiums. Die akademischen Arbeitsbedingungen sind gekennzeichnet durch Entgrenzung, Prekarität, Konkurrenz und Vereinzelung. Viele Akademiker sind daher mutlos und 'zu erschöpft für den Arbeitskampf'. Die Autorin konstatiert einen 'völligen Mangel an Solidarität' unter den Akademikern. Sie plädiert abschließend für die Organisation von Akademikern in Gewerkschaften, Vereinen und Arbeitsgruppen zur Durchsetzung ihrer Interessen und zur Verbesserung ihrer Arbeitsbedingungen. (IAB)

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Taylor, Stephanie & Susan Luckman (Hrsg.) (2018): The new normal of working lives. Critical studies in contemporary work and employment. (Dynamics of virtual work), Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 356 S. DOI:10.1007/978-3-319-66038-7

Abstract

"This critical, international and interdisciplinary edited collection investigates the new normal of work and employment, presenting research on the experience of the workers themselves. The collection explores the formation of contemporary worker subjects, and the privilege or disadvantage in play around gender, class, age and national location within the global workforce.
Organised around the three areas of: creative working, digital working lives, and transitions and transformations, its fifteen chapters examine in detail the emerging norms of work and work activities in a range of occupations and locations. It also investigates the coping strategies adopted by workers to manage novel difficulties and life circumstances, and their understandings of the possibilities, trajectories, mobilities, identities and potential rewards of their work situations." (Publisher information, IAB-Doku) ((en))
Inhalt: Stephanie Taylor, Susan Luckman Collection Introduction: The 'New Normal' of Working Lives (1-15);
Part I Creative Working ;
Susan Luckman, Jane Andrew: Online Selling and the Growth of Home-Based Craft Micro-enterprise: The 'New Normal' of Women's Self-(under)Employment (19-39);
Ana Alacovska: Hope Labour Revisited: Post-socialist Creative Workers and Their Methods of Hope (41-63);
Karen Cross: From Visual Discipline to Love-Work: The Feminising of Photographic Expertise in the Age of Social Media (65-85);
Frédérick Harry Pitts: Creative Labour, Before and After 'Going Freelance': Contextual Factors and Coalition-Building Practices (87-107);
Frédérik Lesage: Searching, Sorting, and Managing Glut: Media Software Inscription Strategies for 'Being Creative' (109-126);
Part II Digital Working Lives ;
Katariina Mäkinen: Negotiating the Intimate and the Professional in Mom Blogging (129-146);
Daniel Ashton, Karen Patel: Vlogging Careers: Everyday Expertise, Collaboration and Authenticity (147-169);
Johanna Koroma, Matti Vartiainen: From Presence to Multipresence: Mobile Knowledge Workers' Densified Hours (171-200);
Iva Josefssonn: Affectual Demands and the Creative Worker: Experiencing Selves and Emotions in the Creative Organisation (201-217);
Silvia Ivaldi, Ivana Pais, Giuseppe Scaratti: Coworking(s) in the Plural: Coworking Spaces and New Ways of Managing (219-241);
Part III Transitions and Transformations ;
Kori Allan: 'Investment in Me': Uncertain Futures and Debt in the Intern Economy (245-263);
Hanna-Mari Ikonen: Letting Them Get Close: Entrepreneurial Work and the New Normal (265-283);
Elin Vadelius: Self-Employment in Elderly Care: A Way to Self-Fulfilment or Self-Exploitation for Professionals? (285-308);
Ingrid Biese, Marta Choroszewicz: Creating Alternative Solutions for Work: Expertences of Women Managers and Lawyers in Poland and the USA (309-325);
Stephanie Taylor: Beyond Work? New Expectations and Aspirations (327-345).

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Hanson, Gordon, Chen Liu & Craig McIntosh (2017): The rise and fall of U.S. low-skilled immigration. In: Brookings Papers on Economic Activity H. Spring, S. 83-168.

Abstract

"From the 1970s to the early 2000s, the United States experienced an epochal wave of low-skilled immigration. Since the Great Recession, however, U.S. borders have become a far less active place when it comes to the net arrival of foreign workers. The number of undocumented immigrants has declined in absolute terms, while the overall population of low-skilled, foreign-born workers has remained stable. We examine how the scale and composition of low-skilled immigration in the United States have evolved over time, and how relative income growth and demographic shifts in the Western Hemisphere have contributed to the recent immigration slowdown. Because major source countries for U.S. immigration are now seeing and will continue to see weak growth of the labor supply relative to the United States, future immigration rates of young, low-skilled workers appear unlikely to rebound, whether or not U.S. immigration policies tighten further." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

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Hyatt, Henry R. & James R. Spletzer (2017): The recent decline of single quarter jobs. In: Labour economics, Jg. 46, H. June, S. 166-176. DOI:10.1016/j.labeco.2016.10.001

Abstract

"Rates of hiring and job separation fell by as much as a third in the U.S. between the late 1990s and the early 2010s. Half of this decline is associated with the declining incidence of jobs that start and end in the same calendar quarter, employment events that we call 'single quarter jobs.' We investigate this unique subset of jobs and its decline using matched employer-employee data for the years 1996 - 2012. We characterize the worker demographics and employer characteristics of single quarter jobs, and demonstrate that changes over time in workforce and employer composition explain little of the decline in these jobs. We find that the decline in these jobs accounts for about a third of the decline in the fraction of the population that holds a job in the private sector that occurred from the mid-2000s to the early 2010s. We also find little evidence that single quarter jobs are stepping stones into longer-term employment. Finally, we show that the inclusion or exclusion of these single quarter jobs creates divergent trends in average earnings and the dispersion of earnings for the years 1996 - 2012. To the extent that administrative records measure the volatile tail of the employment distribution better than conventional household surveys, these findings show that measurement of short duration jobs matters for economic analysis." (Author's abstract, © 2017 Elsevier) ((en))

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Ovetz, Robert (2017): Click to save and return to course: online education, adjunctification, and the disciplining of academic labour. In: Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation, Jg. 11, H. 1, S. 48-70. DOI:10.13169/workorgalaboglob.11.1.0048

Abstract

"There has been little analysis of how neoliberal adjunctification and online education (OLE) are shaping a new academic division of labour in US colleges and universities. OLE rationalises academic labour by separating it from the delivery of educational content while transforming learning into the self-disciplined completion of sequential tasks (e.g. 'competency-based learning') under the panoptic surveillance of online course management systems (CMS). OLE is subtly shifting the very hidden curriculum of higher education to meet the needs of global capital for a more effectively disciplined labour force that can work contingently and remotely with little or no overt coercion. This analysis of the process by which OLE is rationalising academic labour draws upon the ideas of Foucault and Tronti to argue that OLE is a tool for producing a type of disciplined labour that breaks down the borders between productive and reproductive labour in order to colonise all life as work." (Author's abstract, © Pluto Journals Ltd.) ((en))

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Antecol, Heather, Kelly Bedard & Jenna Stearns (2016): Equal but inequitable. Who benefits from gender-neutral tenure clock stopping policies? (IZA discussion paper 9904), Bonn, 41 S.

Abstract

"Many skilled professional occupations are characterized by an early period of intensive skill accumulation and career establishment. Examples include law firm associates, surgical residents, and untenured faculty at research-intensive universities. High female exit rates are sometimes blamed on the inability of new mothers to survive the sustained negative productivity shock associated with childbearing and early childrearing in these environments. Gender-neutral family policies have been adopted in some professions in an attempt to 'level the playing field.' The gender-neutral tenure clock stopping policies adopted by the majority of research-intensive universities in the United States in recent decades are an excellent example. But to date, there is no empirical evidence showing that these policies help women. Using a unique data set on the universe of assistant professor hires at top-50 economics departments from 1985-2004, we show that the adoption of gender-neutral tenure clock stopping policies substantially reduced female tenure rates while substantially increasing male tenure rates." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))