Defining and deploying the concept of 'precarious employment': Valuable idea or empirical fallacy?

Abstract

The definition.

We define precarious employment as work for remuneration that is deemed more-or-less precarious based on three indicators explicitly related to the regularity of the employment contract:

- the job can be terminated with little or no prior notice from the employer - working hours and/or earnings are uncertain/irregular - a contract for ongoing employment is non-existent.

Across different typologies and definitions, job insecurity is the core/essential element (or common denominator) of precarious employment.

Precarious employment, so defined, will be experienced differently by heterogeneous workers who possess different buffers against its insecurity.

Regardless of the subjective experience, workers can objectively be said to be (or not) in precarious employment.