Accounting for Precarity: Recent Studies of Labor Market Uncertainty STEVEN V ALLAS Northeastern University S.Vallas@neu.edu It is no secret that dramatic changes have occurred in the employment regimes that predominate in many Western nations. What has come to be called the ‘‘standard work arrangement,’’ involving stable, full- time employment with benefits and a living wage, has grown problematic, even giving way to insecure, casualized, or ‘‘contingent’’ work arrangements. The scholarly hopes of the 1990s, premised on optimistic concepts such as ‘‘flexible specialization’’ and ‘‘boundary-less careers,’’ have been overtak- en by a different and far more worrisome concept: that of ‘‘precarity,’’ by which is meant an enduring condition of economic liminality. No longer confined to the U.S. economy, fears of precarity have gripped many member states in the European Union, growing more pronounced since the onset of the economic crisis in 2007. The questions naturally arise: What can sociological analy- sis of precarious employment tell us about the origins and consequences of this phenom- enon? What is known about how precarity is experienced? And what implications does this literature hold for possible public inter- ventions? The answers hold great signifi- cance, and might well inform the ongoing debate over social and economic inequality. The logical point of departure for this dis- cussion is Arne Kalleberg’s Good Jobs, Bad Jobs: The Rise of Polarized and Precarious Employment Systems in the United States, 1970s–2000s. This book stands as the single most comprehensive effort to chart the shift- ing ground on which the U.S. workforce stands—ground that has protected some employees while relegating others to a wid- ening pattern of deteriorating job rewards. The book uses a wealth of survey data and official statistics to document the growing trend toward precarious employment— again, insecure jobs at stagnant or falling wages, offering little security and no bene- fits—that many labor-force participants con- front, even as others (a declining minority) stand relatively immunized against such trends. As Kalleberg writes (pp. 14–15), using concepts derived from theories of labor market segmentation: This polarization is not new, but the duality between primary and second- ary labor markets has increased along with the disappearance of relatively low-skill, traditional, middle-class jobs with good pay and benefits, job stabili- ty, and steady promotions.... While all jobs have become more precarious, some workers have been less vulnera- ble than others, and the labor force has become increasingly polarized The Temp Economy: From Kelly Girls to Permatemps in Postwar America, by Erin Hatton. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2011. 212 pp. $27.95 paper. ISBN: 9781439900819. Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street, by Karen Ho. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009. 374 pp. $25.95 paper. ISBN: 9780822345992. Good Jobs, Bad Jobs: The Rise of Polarized and Precarious Employment Systems in the United States, 1970s–2000s, by Arne Kalleberg. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2011. 292 pp. $24.95 paper. ISBN: 9780871544803. A Company of One: Insecurity, Independence and the New World of White Collar Unemployment, by Carrie Lane. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press, 2011. 194 pp. $20.95 paper. ISBN: 9780801477270. Flawed System/Flawed Self: Job Searching and Unemployment Experiences, by Ofer Sharone. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2014. 228 pp. $27.50 paper. ISBN: 9780226073538. Critical-Retrospective Essays 463 Contemporary Sociology 44, 4 by guest on June 15, 2015 csx.sagepub.com Downloaded from