Brotherhood of St Laurence lunchtime seminar - Young people, the rise of precarious employment and the role of control over time in social connection

Precarious employment - casual, insecure and with variable patterns of work - is increasing across the developed world. Young people are amongst the most likely to find themselves part of this growing ‘precariat’ (Standing 2011). Drawing on data from the Life Patterns longitudinal study of the post-secondary school transitions in Australia, I explore how precarious employment, often mixed with study, impacts on young people’s lives and relationships. Many participants in the study found themselves in ‘dead-end’ jobs where the hours they worked varied, sometimes each week and often with little notice. This shaped their lives in inconsistent and singular ways that made it challenging to find the regular periods of shared time to maintain close friendships and to build new acquaintances into deeper friendships. Other participants had more secure employment and more control over their work patterns. Employment for this group was likely to extend their networks and give them useful work experience while not having a negative impact on time with friends. The growth of precarious employment means that control over time is functioning in a new way in the reproduction of inequality.

Dan Woodman is the TR Ashworth Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne. He has published on how social change is reshaping youth transitions, young people’s hopes for the future, and inequality in young people’s lives. For six years he has been part of the Life Patterns Project, a longitudinal study of the post-school transition in Australia. He is on the editorial board of the journal Youth Studies Australia, an associate editor of Journal of Youth Studies and founding convenor of the Sociology of Youth Thematic Group in The Australian Sociological Association.