Defining Work-Related Precariousness and How to Measure It to Secure Health and Wellbeing
Lisa Seubert, Lisa Hopfgartner
Abstract
In recent decades, labor market changes have given rise to insecure and unstructured forms of employment, increasing the risk for precarization of workers’ lives. Although awareness of the problems associated with such forms of employment has increased (Carr, Hodgetts et al., Chapter 1), it is by no means clear what is meant by “precarious employment.” Various authors have proposed different sets of dimensions to define precarious employment, focusing either on objective characteristics of the employment relationship and/or subjective experiences associated with holding such employment. In this chapter, we discuss and integrate interdisciplinary approaches to conceptualize and measure precarious employment, contributing to establishing a comprehensive, multidimensional definition of the phenomenon.