printFrom Employment Precarization to Life Precarization?
Shevchenko I.O.
Doc. Sci. (Sociol.), Leading Researcher of the Scientific and Educational Center, Prof., Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia sheviren@yandex.ru
Shevchenko P.V.
Cand. Sci. (Psychol.), Assoc. Prof., Senior Scientific Researcher, Moscow Pedagogical State University, Moscow, Russia shevpav@yandex.ru
The article was supported by RSF project No. 18-18-00024
For citation:
Shevchenko I.O., Shevchenko P.V. From Employment Precarization to Life Precarization?. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2022. No 7. P. 63-75
Abstract
The article describes employment precarization which is defined as the unstable position of workers in the labor market. The authors substantiate the position that precarization in the field of employment leads to precarization of life leading to vital activity decrease as a consequence of regular overtime work and which has indicators: reduction of free time and lack of income, accompanied by a reduction in access to social and cultural benefits. The work is based on the analysis of the All-Russian population survey data (2018, representative sample, N = 1200). We compare two groups of workers – precariums and employers with no signs of precarity (non-precariums), identified on the basis of the following seven signs of precarity: work without a signed contract or with a contract for no more than one year; non-compliance of education/qualifications with the content of the work; regular overtime work (more than 8 hours a day); additional work in the same or another organization (regular or irregular); salary in an envelope (systematic or occasional); more than 1 time job change over the last 3 years; inability to influence important decisions in the working organization. It was found that precarious workers find themselves in a disadvantaged position in the social sphere, demonstrate some peculiarities of behavior and lifestyle due to an unstable position in the labor market. It is concluded that the precarization of employment is a factor of precarization in other spheres of life. It leads to unfavorable social trends: instability of the life situation, inability to solve some life problems, and predominance of negative assessments of life and its prospects.
Keywords
labor; employment; workers; precarization; precariums; non-precariums; social guarantees; signs (criteria) of precarity; precarity coefficient of work
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