A Multidimensional Approach to Precarious Employment Among Young Workers in EU-28 Countries

This article uses a new multidimensional indicator to measure precariousness among young workers across all EU-28 countries. This indicator measures both the incidence and intensity of precariousness. The analysis has involved five dimensions: wages, type of contract, type of working day, disempowerment, and job insecurity. Our database is the European Union Labour Force Survey for the period 2009–2016. The main indication of precariousness is low wages. We find high rates of precariousness for Mediterranean countries (because of low wages and temporary contracts), Denmark (low wages), and the Netherlands (expansion of involuntary part-time jobs). Central European countries have moderate rates, and most Continental and Eastern countries have low rates. We also find that a higher level of education is related to a lower probability of having a precarious job. Finally, we find a greater probability of having a precarious job among women in most countries, and non-statistically significant differences by country of birth.

     

Measuring Employment Arrangements in the European Labour Force: A Typological Approach

In this article employment quality in the EU27 is investigated by means of a typological approach, based on several features of the employment conditions and relations characterising jobs. The analyses are drawing on data from the 2005 European Working Conditions Survey. Results of Latent Class Cluster Analyses show that it is empirically and theoretically possible to reduce a multitude of factors determining the quality of employment into five different types of jobs regarding their employment quality: SER-like jobs, instrumental jobs, precarious unsustainable jobs, precarious intensive jobs and portfolio jobs. These five types of jobs are strongly related with important covariates such as the socio-demographic profile of workers, organisation level features and indicators of the intrinsic nature of work tasks. Moreover, they are clearly distributed differently between countries within the EU27. The findings from this innovative approach towards the quality of employment are discussed in terms of the implications for the measurement of contemporary employment arrangements in Europe.     

What Does Non-standard Employment Look Like in the United States? An Empirical Typology of Employment Quality

Despite significant interest in the changing nature of employment as a critical social and economic challenge facing society—especially the decline in the so-called Standard Employment Relationship (SER) and rise in more insecure, precarious forms of employment—scholars have struggled to operationalize the multifaceted and heterogeneous nature of contemporary worker-employer relationships within empirical analyses. Here we investigate the character and distribution of employment relationships in the U.S., drawing on a representative sample of wage-earners and self-employed from the General Social Survey (2002–2018). We use the multidimensional construct of employment quality, which includes both contractual (e.g., wages, contract type) and relational (e.g., employee representation and participation) aspects of employment. We further employ a typological measurement approach, using latent class analysis, to explicitly examine how the multiple aspects of employment cluster together in modern labor markets. We present eight distinct employment types in the U.S., including one resembling the historical conception of the SER model (24% of the total workforce), and others representing various constellations of favorable and adverse employment features. These employment types are unevenly distributed across society, in terms of who works these jobs and where they are found in the labor market. Importantly, women, those with lower education, and younger workers are more likely to be in precarious forms of employment. More generally, our typology reveals limitations associated with binary conceptions of standard vs. non-standard employment, or insider–outsider dichotomies envisioned within dual labor market theories.

     

Measuring Precarious Employment: A Proposal for Two Indicators of Precarious Employment Based on Set-Theory and Tested with Dutch Labor Market-Data

Scholars claim that precarious employment is rising. The precariously employed earn low wages, have little job- and income security and occupy jobs that can generally be deemed low quality. These employees are at a disproportionally high risk of poverty and are at risk of detrimental psychological effects. Despite the salience of the issue, precarious employment remains an elusive concept and has proven difficult to measure directly. Instead, measurement tends to rely on non-integrated indicators and proxies, thus introducing significant issues concerning the validity of found results. This paper proposes two integrated indicators for specific aspects of precarious employment. Indicator 1 focuses on income insecurity and is constructed using wage, supplementary income and unemployment benefit entitlements. Indicator 2 focuses on job insecurity and is constructed using contract type and unemployment duration. Additionally, to check for the coexistence of job- and income insecurity at the individual level and give a more holistic picture of precarious employment, Indicators 1 and 2 are integrated. First, previous research on precarious employment and job insecurity is reviewed to bolster the indicators’ validity. Second, the indicators are constructed using an approach grounded in crisp-set theory and data from the Dutch “Organisatie Strategisch Arbeidsmartkonderzoek” labor supply panel. Finally, the indicators are tested by assessing precarious employment over time, by educational level, sector and immigrant status.     

Precarious employment among South Korean women: Insights from a comparison to France

Family responsibilities for women are often associated with precarious employment. This relation varies depending on whether women can reconcile family life and work or not. Based on the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study from 1998 to 2008 and on the French part of the European Community Household Panel between 1998 and 2001, a multiple correspondence analysis shows that precariousness in employment is correlated with family life and levels of education. The better conditions of work-family balance in France enable young mothers to combine family life with stable employment of good quality, which is not the case for South Korean women. The comparison of the two countries highlights the necessary reforms in favor of women’s better being.     

Cross Cultural Application of the WHOQOL-SRPB in the Chinese Community with Diverse Spiritual Affiliations

In order to contribute to providing a methodology to ensure objectivity and transparency in the measurement of multidimensional poverty, this paper proposes a new threshold for the identification of the multidimensional poor which is also applicable to each of the dimensions of poverty, suitable for identifying the severely poor in developed countries. This new methodology is applied to analyse the evolution of material deprivation in Spain during the period of economic crisis, comparing the results with those obtained using other traditional approaches.     

Rethinking Dimensions: The South African Multidimensional Poverty Index

The growth of literature on multidimensional poverty measures generates an uncertainty about which dimensions best capture the extent of poverty. This paper applies multiple correspondence analysis in the context of multidimensional poverty in South Africa to identify statistically valid additional dimensions using National Income Dynamics Study data of 2012. The results confirm the argument that economic status (lack of employment) and financial commitment (over-indebtedness) can be regarded as important dimensions, as their occurrence constrains households from participating in the activities essential in modern society. It is therefore proposed that, in addition to health, education, and living standard dimensions, both economic status and financial commitments should be included in the framework for the South African multidimensional poverty analysis. A central contribution of this work is a proposal of a hybrid multidimensional measure which recommends a combination of both non-monetary and monetary indicators, in particular over-indebtedness.     

Up and on or down and out? Gender, immigration and the consequences of temporary employment in Canada

What happens to temporary workers when their jobs end? Is temporary employment a fleeting way station to a better job, or does it herald an ongoing cycle of precariousness? What are the implications of temporary employment dynamics for broader patterns of inequality in labour markets? European researchers have focused increasing attention on these issues in the context of concern about the relationship between inequality and insecurity in labour markets with strong regulatory protections for insiders. However, research on the outcomes of temporary employment in the less regulated labour markets of North America remains limited. This paper draws on rich representative panel data from Statistics Canada's Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics (SLID) and competing risks Cox regression to assess the outcomes and dynamics of temporary employment in this understudied context. Key contributions include more precise estimates of transitions, consideration of multiple theoretically relevant outcomes (permanent jobs; new temporary jobs; and periods of unemployment and labour force withdrawal), and situation of the effect of gender and immigration status on temporary employment transitions in the context of the dynamics of permanent jobs. Findings present a more pessimistic picture of overall temporary job outcomes than prior research but suggest that the dynamics of temporary work do not magnify inequalities of gender and immigration status.     

A Multidimensional Approach to Measuring Quality of Employment (QoE) Deprivation in Six Central American Countries

This paper proposes a methodology for measuring Quality of Employment (QoE) deprivation from a multidimensional perspective in six Central American countries (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama) using a dataset specifically designed to measure employment conditions. Building on previous work on multidimensional poverty and employment indicators, the paper uses the Alkire/Foster (AF) method to construct a synthetic indicator of the QoE at an individual level. It selects four dimensions that must be considered as essential to QoE deprivation: income, job stability, job security and employment conditions. These dimensions then subdivide into several indicators, a threshold for each indicator and dimension is established before defining an overall cut-off line that allows for the calculation of composite levels of deprivation. The results generated by this indicator show that Central American countries can be divided into three distinct and robust performance groups in terms of their QoE deprivation. Overall, approximately 60% of the deprivation levels are attributable to non-income variables, such as occupational status and job tenure. The methodology used can allow policymakers to identify and focus on the most vulnerable workers in a labour market and highlights the fact that having a formal written contract is no guarantee of good job quality, particularly in the case of women.

     

New Measures of Economic Insecurity Reveal its Expansion Into EU Middle Classes and Welfare States

Economic instability, social changes, and new social policies place economic insecurity high on the scholarly and political agenda. We contribute to these debates by proposing a new multidimensional, intertemporal measure of economic insecurity that accounts for both its multiplicity and its dynamism. First, we develop three theory-driven, multidimensional measures of economic insecurity. Principal Components Analysis validates the measure. Second, we develop a dynamic approach to insecurity, using longitudinal data and a newly revised headcount method. Third, we then use our new measures to analyze the distribution of insecurity in Europe. Our analysis shows that insecurity is widespread across Europe, even in low-inequality, encompassing welfare states. Moreover, it extends across income groups and occupational classes, reaching into the middle classes.

     

The Counting-Based Measurement of Multidimensional Poverty: The Focus on Economic Resources, Inner Capabilities, and Relational Resources in the United States

This paper assesses the Alkire and Foster (AF) approach to measure multidimensional poverty and proposes a ‘dimensional’ approach with economic resources, inner capabilities, and relational resources to account for its conceptual deficits. By measuring poverty in the United States using data from General Social Survey, it shows that, compared to the AF approach, the two-step process of the dimensional approach can provide greater insights into the form and structure of poverty, helping to analyze issues more comprehensively and inform policy decisions better. The relevance of the specific poverty dimensions and indicators and their operationalization are discussed and carried further.     

The impact of the labour market on the timing of marriage and births in Spain

This paper investigates how education and the labour market affect Spanish individual decisions on the timing of marriage and births, using a Cox hazard approach. It disentangles men and women, and two groups, Cohort 1945–1960 and Cohort 1961–1977. Results show that female employment delays marriage in Cohort 1945–1960, but it has a reverse effect in Cohort 1961–1977. We also find evidence that employment is a barrier for family formation since employed women postpone births in both cohorts. The precarious Spanish labour markets, captured by female unemployment rates, delay family formation, especially by putting off marriage. Male unemployment, at the individual level, impacts negatively on fertility only through delaying marriage.

Welfare State Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (1970s–2000s): Multidimensional Welfare Index,Its Methodology and Results

There is an ongoing debate between focalization and universalization on welfare policies as the best way to develop the welfare state in Latin America and the Caribbean. However, there is a need to develop a measure that exhibits the multidimensional nature of the welfare state, instead of focusing on the social spending dimension. Segura-Ubiergo (The political economy of the welfare state in Latin America: globalization, democracy and development. Cambridge University Press, New York, 2007) constructed a welfare effort index (WEI) to facilitate understand the relative degrees of welfare state development among Latin American countries. The WEI focuses mainly on social spending and ignores the other dimensions of welfare. Based on a comparative analysis of 17 Latin American countries and following the methodology of Segura-Ubiergo, a new index that aims at enriching the WEI was constructed. The new index is multidimensional in that it has eight indicators relating to three dimensions of welfare: social spending, coverage of welfare programs and outcome of welfare institutions. Principal component analysis was used for reducing the indicators into three indexes that represent three proposed dimensions of welfare. The combination of these three indexes gives the multidimensional welfare index. The results of the index account for more than 75 % of the data variance.     

Women’s Job Quality Across Family Life Stages: An Analysis of Female Employees Across 27 European Countries

There is little empirical evidence on how working conditions affect women’s employment and fertility choices, despite a number of studies on the impact of individual-level and institutional factors. The article addresses this gap by examining how family life stages are related to particular aspects of job quality among employed women in 27 European countries. The central argument of the analysis is that high-quality jobs are conducive to both transitions to motherhood and employment after childbirth as women select into these roles. Accordingly, mothers of young children, if employed, are expected to have relatively better quality jobs. Four dimensions of job quality are considered: job security, career progression, working time and intrinsic job quality. The results indicate that mothers with young children are more likely to hold high-quality jobs than women at other life stages with respect to working time quality and job security, but with some variation across countries for job security. The findings highlight the importance of high-quality jobs for women’s fertility decisions and labour market attachment after childbirth, with implications for European employment policy.     

Equality,economic resources,and structural diferentiation: Dimensions of development in the Northeast United States

This note describes a factor analysis of indicators of income equality, income, employment, and the diversity of commercial, transportation, organization, and other institutions in 300 counties and 94 substate planning and development districts in the Northeast. There were three factors at each level of analysis, representing income equality, economic resources, and structural differentiation. This finding underlines the need to consider the multidimensional character of development in planning and evaluating development programs. Moreover, comparative analysis of the dimensions of development in counties or districts may complement the traditional case study approach to industrialization.     

Construction and Evolution of a Multidimensional Well-Being Index for the Spanish Regions

The study presented here is an attempt to calculate a comparative multidimensional index of economic well-being for the Spanish Autonomous Communities. Based on the dimensions of adjusted consumption, real wealth, equity and economic security per inhabitant, we obtain one relative index using a system of uniform weightings, a second resulting from a factor analysis and a third provided by a DEA analysis. We elaborate the index for the year 2000 and for 2006, thereby providing the relative results with greater robustness and permitting some conclusions to be reached with regard to the evolution over time of the index.     

Temporary Work in Transnational Labor Regulation: SER-Centrism and the Risk of Exacerbating Gendered Precariousness

This article explores the transnational regulation of temporary work. Analyzing the terms of the EU Directive on Fixed-Term Work (1999), the ILO Convention on Private Employment Agencies (1997), the ILO Recommendation on the Employment Relationship (2006), and a draft EU Directive on Temporary Agency Work under negotiation, it demonstrates that these regulations hinge on the gendered norm of the standard employment relationship (SER) or the full-time permanent job complete with a social wage. They pursue labor protections designed to stretch the employment norm. To the extent that this “SER-centric” approach alleviates precariousness, it is most likely to help workers in forms of employment closely resembling the SER (i.e., fixed-term workers) and least likely to improve the situations of those that are most precarious (i.e., temporary agency workers).

Measuring and Monitoring Poverty and Well-Being: A New Approach for the Synthesis of Multidimensionality

The aim of this paper is to introduce a new approach for the synthesis and analysis of multidimensional poverty and well-being indicators. Our general perspective is inspired by the theoretical foundations of the capability approach and sustainable human development paradigm. The new synthesis of indicators aims at monitoring outcomes of units of interest. Its defining features include: full sensitiveness, continuity, flexibility in substitution between dimensions, and the straightforward interpretation of the results. All these properties are obtained through a transparent and accountable process that is fully open to public scrutiny and reason (as suggested by Amartya Sen). The main contribution of this approach is that the degree of substitutability between dimensions can be directly linked to the general level of well-being of a person, which addresses the so-called “inescapable arbitrariness” issue discussed by Anand and Sen (Concepts of human development and poverty: a multidimensional perspective. Human Development Papers. UNDP, New York, 1997). The new synthesis proposed opens up new possibilities for different types of applications, including monitoring and evaluating development programmes.     

A New Generalized Variance Approach for Measuring Multidimensional Inequality and Poverty

The paper suggests a new generalized variance concept for measuring multidimensional inequality of a stratified society, based on multivariate statistical methods, where the members of society form a cloud in the oblique space of dimensions of inequality, such as income, expenditure and property. The cloud presents the multidimensional inequality capsulized in the cloud. The goal is to condense all the inequality information embodied by the cloud into a composite compact metric characterizing both the shape and the inner structure of the cloud. Contrary to the conventional literature that considers multidimensionality as a unidimensional weighted combination of the dimensions, our new composite index measures the inequality of the configuration of the points in the cloud. Our aim is twofold. First, we introduce the Inequality Covariance Matrix (ICM) assigned to the cloud, with elements measuring the correlations among dimensions. Having ICM, we propose the Generalized Variance (GV) of ICM to measure the composite Generalized Variance Inequality (GVI) level. Second, to evaluate the stratum-specific structure of the overall inequality, we suggest a new two-stage procedure. In the first stage, we divide the total GVI into between-groups and within-groups effects. Then, in the second stage the contributions of the strata to the within-groups inequality and, the contributions of the dimensions to the between-groups inequality are calculated. This GVI approach is sensitive to the correlation system, decomposable into stratum effects and, the number of dimensions is not limited. Moreover, including the log-dimensions in the analysis, GVI yields an Entropy Covariance Matrix giving a new Generalized Variance Entropy index. Finally, the GVI of censored poverty indicators means multidimensional poverty measurement. This special complex task is not yet solved in the traditional literature so far.

     

A Different Perspective on Poverty in Lao PDR: Multidimensional Poverty in Lao PDR for the Years 2002/2003 and 2007/2008

This paper presents an indicator for measuring multidimensional poverty in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic applying the Alkire–Foster methodology to the Lao Expenditure and Consumption Survey 2002/2003 and 2007/2008. We calculated a multidimensional poverty index (MPI) that includes three dimensions: education, health, and standard of living. Making use of the MPI’s decomposability, we analyse how much each of the different dimensions and its respective indicators contribute to the overall MPI. We find a marked reduction in the multidimensional poverty headcount ratio over the study period, regardless of how the indicators are weighted or how the deprivation and poverty cut-offs are set. This reduction is based on improvements regarding all indicators except cooking fuel and nutrition. We observe no significant reduction in the intensity of poverty, however; there are wide disparities between the country’s regions and between urban and rural areas. The proportion of poor people in rural areas is more than twice as high as that in urban areas. By complementing the traditional income-based poverty measure, we hope to provide useful information that can support knowledge-based decision-making for poverty alleviation.