From Casual Work to Economic Security: The Case of British Columbia

Analysis of casual work in British Columbia is an important issue given that the increase in casual work has been greater in this province than in other provinces in Canada and given that the labour market has been substantially deregulated since 2001. In this paper, we analyse how individuals’ casual employment status affects their economic security based on a specially designed survey undertaken by the authors. We follow the ILO’s classification of the dimensions of economic security but, based on our findings, add a further dimension—Time security—As being of particular importance to casual workers. On the basis of these results, we analyse the policy interventions that might be necessary to increase the economic security of casual workers, policies which we suggest can best be conceptualized as providing a “security quilt”.

Paul BowlesEmail: