A multidimensional operationalization of precarious employment with a counting approach: evidence from Spain

Abstract

The article proposes a novel multidimensional operationalization of precarious employment using the Alkire-Foster dual threshold counting approach methodology. The proposal is made in a context in which, although precarious employment tends to be considered a multidimensional construct characterized by an accumulation of unfavourable features of employment quality, there is neither a standard and generally accepted definition nor operationalization of the phenomenon in the literature. The proposed methodology has the advantages that it can be easily applied to the usual content of most labour surveys, and that it allows an analysis of both the scale and the nature of precariousness. The illustrative evidence obtained for Spain reveals both a high incidence of multidimensional precariousness (affecting almost 40% of wage earners) and a high intensity (multidimensional precarious wage earners suffer from around 3 job deprivations). Moreover, it shows that employment precariousness is highly persistent over time and tends to grow over time and that there is great heterogeneity in the scope of the phenomenon according to its individual incidence and among different groups of workers.