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Becoming precarious? Precarious work and life trajectories after retrenchment

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dc.contributor.authorBarnes, T.
dc.contributor.authorWeller, S.A.
dc.date.issued2020
dc.description.abstractMuch of the large literature on precarious work has largely tended to assume that precarity is shaped by job quality: that precarious work leads to precarious lives. This paper adds to the literature by questioning this line of causality and highlighting the broader range of influences shaping the lives of older workers who enter precarious work after retrenchment from secure, long-term careers. Drawing on a study of Australia’s automotive manufacturing industry, which closed in 2017, this article finds that for older retrenched workers, exposure to precarious employment sharpened life precarity for some but did not lead to precarious lives for others. Instead of a uniform transition from security to precarity, these workers’ life trajectories diverged depending on their household-scale financial security. Key issues influencing the likelihood of older workers’ lives becoming precarious were enterprise benefits and asset wealth accumulated through their previous careers.
dc.identifier.citationCritical Sociology, 2020; 46(4-5):527-541
dc.identifier.doi10.1177/0896920519896822
dc.identifier.issn0896-9205
dc.identifier.issn1569-1632
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/11541.2/141258
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherSAGE
dc.relation.fundingARC DE170100735
dc.rightsCopyright The Author(s) 2020
dc.source.urihttps://doi.org/10.1177/0896920519896822
dc.subjectsociology of work
dc.subjectprecarity
dc.subjectprecarisation
dc.subjectprecarious work
dc.subjectprecariat
dc.subjectretrenched workers
dc.subjectolder workers
dc.titleBecoming precarious? Precarious work and life trajectories after retrenchment
dc.typeJournal article
pubs.publication-statusPublished
ror.mmsid9916375005201831

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