Varieties of Precarity: How Insecure Work Manifests Itself, Affects Well-Being, and Is Shaped by Social Welfare Institutions and Labor Market Policies

Precarious Lives addresses one of the most important developments in employment relations in the neoliberal era: increase in labor precarity and the subsequent decline in employee well-being. Drawing on data on social welfare institutions and labor market policies in six rich democracies, the author shows that work is less precarious, and workers are happier, when institutions and policies provide job protection, and put in place support systems to buffer job loss.