Rise of Precarious Employment in Europe

The deterioration of employmentconditions for an increasing number of employees in late capitalism hasprompted researchers to find ways to conceptualise, as well as measure, these observed new tendencies. This book examines precarious employment in Europe through the economic crisis, drawing on two main sources: theories of how the financial and debt crisis coupled with labour market reforms to exacerbate precarity in the workforce; and data from the European Labour Force Survey from 2005-12, capturing various aspects of precarious employment. It also includes a detailed discussion of policy developments in a series of EU countries, with the aim of demonstrating how precarity has been directly linked with certainlabour market reforms implemented both before and after the crisis. The authors conclude that the crisis and the labour market reforms represent significant pillars of the strategy used by states and employers torespond to the crisis, as well as promote their competitiveness agenda. Thereduction of labour costs and the promotion of higher flexibility arethe ultimate goals of that strategy, but the side-effects include an inabilityto provide high quality jobs to a growing number of people, especially youngpeople. The authors also capture the extent of precariousemployment, providing comparable evidenceacross EU countries.