Handbook on Precarious Work

This comprehensive Handbook provides an accessible overview of precarious employment, exploring how insecure, low-paid and unstable forms of work shape the lives, health and identities of workers across the globe.

With international and interdisciplinary contributions, the chapters demonstrate the prevalence of such work, highlighting its presence not only within informal sectors of the Global South but also within advanced economies worldwide. Examining both structural forces and lived experiences, it covers key issues such as job insecurity, mental well-being, unstable and informal work, and in-work poverty, as well as institutional responses and the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. This timely volume underscores the urgent need for fairer and more sustainable labour markets, emphasizing the role of organizations, institutions and collective action in fostering sustainable livelihoods.

This collection is a valuable resource for scholars and students of human resource management, organizational behaviour, sociology of work, labour studies, economics and public policy. With a focus on institutional interventions, policy implications and the role of the state, policy makers and public sector professionals will greatly benefit from the evidence-based insights.

Edited by Maria Hudson, Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management, and Beatrice Piccoli, Lecturer in Human Resource Management, Essex Business School, University of Essex, UK