Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Thesis Format

Integrated Article

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Program

Sociology

Supervisor

Shuey, Kim M.

2nd Supervisor

Waite, Sean

Co-Supervisor

Abstract

A growing body of research examines precarious employment characteristics that have grown in in the context of a shifting labour market landscape and de-stabilizing structural and economic developments that have gained momentum in Western economies since the 1970s. However, less is known about how these characteristics manifest across the individual life course. This dynamism is conceptually salient not only because labour market activity necessarily changes for individuals over time, but also because the concept of precarious employment concerns long-term employment prospects beyond short-term conditions. Even less research examines the extent to which younger cohorts experience ever more precarious employment pathways across the life course than older cohorts, even though their experiences are increasingly embedded in a shifting labour market context. This dissertation examines how three employment phenomena linked to the proliferation of precarious employment—declining employment stability, multiple jobholding, and increases in women’s labour force participation (LFP)—manifest across the individual life course and how they relate to important social factors such as the historical timing of labour market activity of different cohorts, gender, educational attainment, race, and family structure.

This dissertation addresses these research gaps by examining long-term pathways of employment that span 10 or more years across the life course, focusing on three distinct but interrelated employment characteristics related to precarious work conditions: employment stability, multiple jobholding, and women’s LFP. Drawing on the life course approach, all three of the integrated articles in this dissertation use longitudinal panel data from the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics. The methods used include latent class analysis, growth curve modelling, optimal matching and related sequence analysis techniques, and logistic regression. The findings highlight the benefit of examining complex long-term pathways to understand how individuals experience new labour market realities, as well as how these contribute to structural disadvantage across cohorts as well as gender and other sources of labour market inequality.

Summary for Lay Audience

There is growing evidence of increases in employment characteristics that are linked to economic disadvantage and instability, also known as ‘employment precarity.’ These changes have occurred in the context of a changing labour market and de-stabilizing structural and economic developments that have gained momentum in Western economies since the 1970s. However, little is known about how employment precarity manifests over the course of individual lives, despite the fact that employment activity necessarily changes for individuals over time and that long-term employment prospects are important for individuals’ economic outcomes beyond short-term conditions. Even less research examines the extent to which individuals today experience more precarious employment pathways than individuals in the past, even though their experiences are increasingly embedded in a shifting labour market context. This dissertation examines how three employment characteristics linked to increases in precarious employment—declining employment stability, multiple jobholding, and increases in women’s labour force participation (LFP)—manifest across individual lives and how they relate to important social factors such as the historical timing of labour market activity, gender, education, and family structure.

This dissertation addresses these research gaps by examining long-term pathways of employment that span 10 years or more across individual lives, focusing on three distinct but interrelated employment characteristics related to precarious work conditions: employment stability, multiple jobholding, and women’s LFP. All three of the integrated articles in this dissertation use data from the U.S. Panel Study of Income Dynamics and various methods that examine change across individual lives and across historical time. The findings highlight the benefit of examining complex long-term pathways to understand how individuals experience new labour market realities, as well as how these contribute to social and economic disadvantages.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

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