Precarious work, precarious lives: how policy can create more security

While still debated in some academic and policy circles, even the OECD accepts that atypical precarious working arrangements, including temporary jobs, involuntary part-time jobs and bogus self-employment, are often not stepping stones to better employment. As FEPS-TASC’s research so clearly shows, precarious work leads to precarious lives where people are trapped in uncertainty, floating and on stand-by, with all aspects of their lives, their personal ambitions and hopes for family formation, on hold. The qualitative evidence in the report vividly describes these effects, such as ‘forced infantilisation’ and mental scarring that impacts the quality of life of precarious workers and their families. This is not just a labour market matter, it is also matters for equality.

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