The yeah nah of job growth

Way back in 2016, a pair of US researchers updated a working paper for showing that most of our gains in jobs, 94% our "net job growth" created between 2005 and 2015, in fact, came from what the researchers called "alternative work" (Katz & Krueger, 2016, p. 7).

Alternative work is where employees are "working or self-employed as an independent contractor, an independent consultant, or a freelance worker" (Katz & Krueger, 2016, p. 9); working for organisations such as Deliveroo, Uber, or similar; where power is wielded by the employer, and the 'independent' contractor is effectively a price-taker. This type of work appears to offer "workers the ‘freedom’ and ‘flexibility’ to work whenever and wherever they want, becoming a source of income while positively contributing to platform workers’ work–life balance" (Cano et al., 2021, p. 47). And yep, it sounds like a good deal for "governments focused on job creation, [but such roles] are also symbolic of precarious work, and hence of deteriorating working conditions and labour standards (p. 47).

Further, the reality is significantly different for the 'contractor' than the marketed ideal sounds. If contractors refuse a gig, the algorithm starts to discount them quite quickly, and they end up not making enough money to survive. There appear to be a growing class of precarious workers who cannot make ends meet, despite working far more than a full time role.

I found the Katz and Krueger (2016) findings interesting: there is evidence we were eroding our employee-base well before Covid-19, and after we have accounted for the number of new jobs we have created, less the number of jobs that have vanished, damn near all of them were contingent roles.

We are not creating safe, secure employment, but perilous, precarious work where we have to take the pay that is offered, because we have no bargaining power.

So: Yay! Job Growth. Oh no: it is contingent. I am sure this will all end really well.

Sam

References:

Cano, M. R., Espelt, R., & Morell, M. F. (2021). Flexibility and freedom for whom? Precarity, freedom and flexibility in on-demand food delivery. Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation, 15(1), 46-68. https://doi.org/10.13169/workorgalaboglob.15.1.0046

Katz, L. F., & Krueger, A. B. (2016). The Rise and Nature of Alternative Work Arrangements in the United States, 1995-2015 [Working paper #22667]. National Bureau of Economic Research [NBER]. http://www.nber.org/papers/w22667