18.09.2018Talk of Prof. Zlatko Skrbiš, Monash University, October 3rd 2018, 10:15-11:45

Professor Zlatko Skrbiš
Senior Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic)
Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

Precarious work, precarious future?
Insights from the ‘Our Lives’project

Australia has one of the most flexible and highly deregulated youth labour markets in the OECD, with significant proportions of young people experiencing the contingent employment arrangements associated with popular claims about an emerging precariat class. While ‘casual’ jobs can offer valuable work experience and much-needed flexibility during tertiary study, they may also exacerbate insecurity, particularly among more marginalised sections of youth.

This paper explores the characteristics of young casual employees, their orientations towards such work, and whether they differ from young people in permanent employment situation in their well-being and emerging autonomy. We explore these issues with survey data from a large, single-age cohort of young Australians (n=2,406) participating in the Social Futures and Life Pathways (‘Our Lives’) project in 2015 (aged 22) or 2017 (aged 24), as well as qualitative interviews with selected respondents.

Date and hour: Wednesday, 3 October 2018, 10:15-11:45
Room: AND-2-46, Andreasstr. 15, 8050 Zurich
Research Seminar ‘Labour, Generation, Stratification’