The institutional drivers and consequences of
precarious work in the new economy
1.1 Mai, Quan. "Unclear Signals, Uncertain Prospects: The Labor Market Consequences of Freelancing in the New Economy." Forthcoming in Social Forces
Abstract:
The advent of various types of contingent jobs complicates selection criteria for full-time employment. While previous studies analyzed the penalties associated with other forms of contingent work, the labor market consequences of freelancing have been overlooked. I argue that freelancing works have features of both “good” and “bad” jobs, transcend the demarcation between “primary” and “secondary” sectors implied by segmentation theorists, and thus embed uncertainty around their categorization and meaning. Drawing on the ‘signal clarity’ concept from management scholarship, I extend existing sociological works on employer perceptions of candidates by proposing a model to theorize how a history of freelancing affects workers’ prospects at the hiring stage. I present results from two interrelated studies. First, I use a field experiment that involves submitting nearly 12,000 fictitious resumes to analyze the causal effect of a freelancing work history on the likelihood of getting call-backs. The experiment reveals that freelancing decreases workers' odds of securing full-time employment by about 30 percent. Second, I use data from 42 in-depth interviews with hiring officers to illustrate two mechanisms that could account for that observed effect. Interview data demonstrate that freelancing sends decidedly unclear competence signals: employers are hesitant to hire freelancers not because these candidates lack skills, but because verifying these skills is difficult. Freelancing also sends clearer and negative commitment signals. This study sheds new lights on labor market segmentation theory and deepens our understanding of how nonstandard work operates as a vehicle for inequality in the new economy.
Abstract:
The advent of various types of contingent jobs complicates selection criteria for full-time employment. While previous studies analyzed the penalties associated with other forms of contingent work, the labor market consequences of freelancing have been overlooked. I argue that freelancing works have features of both “good” and “bad” jobs, transcend the demarcation between “primary” and “secondary” sectors implied by segmentation theorists, and thus embed uncertainty around their categorization and meaning. Drawing on the ‘signal clarity’ concept from management scholarship, I extend existing sociological works on employer perceptions of candidates by proposing a model to theorize how a history of freelancing affects workers’ prospects at the hiring stage. I present results from two interrelated studies. First, I use a field experiment that involves submitting nearly 12,000 fictitious resumes to analyze the causal effect of a freelancing work history on the likelihood of getting call-backs. The experiment reveals that freelancing decreases workers' odds of securing full-time employment by about 30 percent. Second, I use data from 42 in-depth interviews with hiring officers to illustrate two mechanisms that could account for that observed effect. Interview data demonstrate that freelancing sends decidedly unclear competence signals: employers are hesitant to hire freelancers not because these candidates lack skills, but because verifying these skills is difficult. Freelancing also sends clearer and negative commitment signals. This study sheds new lights on labor market segmentation theory and deepens our understanding of how nonstandard work operates as a vehicle for inequality in the new economy.
1.2 Mai, Quan, Anna Jacobs, Scott Schieman. "Precarious sleep? Nonstandard work, gender, and sleep disturbance in 31 European countries" Social Science & Medicine (External Link)
Abstract:
Despite the advent of precarious work, little is known about how this form of employment can generate disparities in sleep outcomes. We extend existing work by providing a theoretical framework linking different measures of work precarity to sleep problems. We argue that the association between objective precarious working conditions and sleep disturbance is channeled through and mediated by subjective work precarity. We further argue that gender moderates the relationship between objective and subjective work precarity. We test this theoretical framework using the 2010 European Working Conditions Survey. Our results indicate that objective precarious working conditions undermine sleep by promoting the subjective experience of insecurity. Furthermore, the indirect effect of objective precarious work on sleep disturbance through subjective employment insecurity varies by gender: compared to women in similar working conditions, men report higher levels of subjective precarity. This research makes important contributions to the literatures on the health consequences of nonstandard work and social determinants of well-being.
Abstract:
Despite the advent of precarious work, little is known about how this form of employment can generate disparities in sleep outcomes. We extend existing work by providing a theoretical framework linking different measures of work precarity to sleep problems. We argue that the association between objective precarious working conditions and sleep disturbance is channeled through and mediated by subjective work precarity. We further argue that gender moderates the relationship between objective and subjective work precarity. We test this theoretical framework using the 2010 European Working Conditions Survey. Our results indicate that objective precarious working conditions undermine sleep by promoting the subjective experience of insecurity. Furthermore, the indirect effect of objective precarious work on sleep disturbance through subjective employment insecurity varies by gender: compared to women in similar working conditions, men report higher levels of subjective precarity. This research makes important contributions to the literatures on the health consequences of nonstandard work and social determinants of well-being.
1.3 Mai, Quan. 2017. “Precarious Work In Europe: Assessing Cross-National Differences And Institutional Determinants Of Precarity In 31 European Countries” Research in the Sociology of Work (External Link)
Abstract
Within the last few decades, precarious work rose as an important feature of socio-economic insecurity in contemporary Europe. Despite the prevalence of precarious work, the dynamics of cross-national variation of nonstandard employment remains an understudied theme. The study asks: How do various institutional features – such as party composition of governments and labor market institutions – shape the cross-national variation in the distribution and severity of precarious work in 31 European countries? This research captures the elusive concept of precarious work by measuring the degree to which a job [1] is insecure and uncertain, [2] offers poor prospects of career mobility, and [3] puts workers in an economically insecure position with low pay. Building from two theoretical paradigms, the varieties of capitalism (VoC) and the power resource approach (PRT), this study derives and tests hypotheses about how various political and labor market institutions shape the variation in distribution of precarious employment in 31 European countries. Combining the individual-level data from the 2010 European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) with country-level data from multiple sources, my findings suggest that workers’ exposure to job precariousness increase in countries with [1] strong historical presence of right-wing politics, [2] low levels of spending on unemployment benefits and ALMP, [3] weak labor unions, [4] a lack of focus on vocational training and firm-specific skills, [5] high unemployment rates and [6] a legacy of Post-socialism.
1.4 Mai, Quan, Terrence Hill, Luis Vila-Henninger, and Michael Grandner. Forthcoming. “Subjective Employment Insecurity and Sleep Disturbance: Evidence from 31 European Countries.” Journal of Sleep Research (External Link)
Abstract:
For nearly half a century, jobs have become increasingly characterized by employment insecurity. We examined the implications for sleep disturbance. We used cross-sectional data from the European Working Conditions Survey (2010). 24,553 workers between the ages of 25 and 65 in 31 European countries were asked to indicate whether they suffered from “insomnia or general sleep difficulties” in the past 12 months. We employed logistic regression to model the association between employment insecurity and sleep disturbance for all countries combined and each individual country. For all countries combined, employment insecurity increased the odds of reporting insomnia or general sleep difficulties in the past 12 months. Each unit increase in employment insecurity elevated the odds of sleep disturbance by approximately 54%. This finding was remarkably consistent across 25 of 31 European countries, including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. These results persisted with adjustments for age, gender, immigrant status, household size, partnership status, number of children, child care, elder care, education, earner status, employment sector, workplace size, precarious employment status, and employment tenure. Employment insecurity was unrelated to sleep disturbance in four European countries: Malta, Poland, Portugal, and Romania. Our research reveals the human costs associated with working in neoliberal post-industrial economies. Our analyses extend the external validity of previous research by exploring the impact of employment insecurity across European countries.
Abstract:
For nearly half a century, jobs have become increasingly characterized by employment insecurity. We examined the implications for sleep disturbance. We used cross-sectional data from the European Working Conditions Survey (2010). 24,553 workers between the ages of 25 and 65 in 31 European countries were asked to indicate whether they suffered from “insomnia or general sleep difficulties” in the past 12 months. We employed logistic regression to model the association between employment insecurity and sleep disturbance for all countries combined and each individual country. For all countries combined, employment insecurity increased the odds of reporting insomnia or general sleep difficulties in the past 12 months. Each unit increase in employment insecurity elevated the odds of sleep disturbance by approximately 54%. This finding was remarkably consistent across 25 of 31 European countries, including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. These results persisted with adjustments for age, gender, immigrant status, household size, partnership status, number of children, child care, elder care, education, earner status, employment sector, workplace size, precarious employment status, and employment tenure. Employment insecurity was unrelated to sleep disturbance in four European countries: Malta, Poland, Portugal, and Romania. Our research reveals the human costs associated with working in neoliberal post-industrial economies. Our analyses extend the external validity of previous research by exploring the impact of employment insecurity across European countries.