It is often characterised and promoted as flexible work but it is typically also unsecure, unsafe, poorly paid, and unprotected. These types of precarious employments can be detrimental to workers’ mental and physical health and wellbeing, which in turn affects their job performance.

Research shows that precarious work is most common in younger and older people. Younger workers are also more likely than older generations to be unemployed and many young people leaving school also typically go into precarious work to start with. This suggests a need for policies and interventions targeting young people and their employment opportunities.

The COVID-19 pandemic and it associated restrictions are likely to impact on society, the economy and the labour market for some time and precarious work is likely to increase. Employers may be less inclined to hire on a permanent basis and workers may be desperate for a job and willing to take a less secure job than they otherwise would have. Evidence shows that past recessions have resulted in an increase of precarious work and the amount of employees on zero-hour contracts was already increasing before the pandemic from 2019-2020.

Source: An intergenerational Audit, 2020, Intergenerational-audit-2020.pdf (resolutionfoundation.org)