Making Careers and Staying Employed: Employability in a Low-Wage Labor Market

• In Event: 161 - Section on Organizations, Occupation and Work Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 15. Job Insecurity and Temporary Employment II

Abstract

Using interview data from workers across Northern California, I examine the employability strategies of workers in the secondary labor market. Current research points to the expansion of precarious and contingent employment relations as central features of contemporary labor markets. While these are not new features, since the 1970’s they have expanded across the occupational hierarchy with both material and symbolic consequences for workers. I explore a third feature and consequence of these trends – the rise of a regime of employability (corresponding to workers need to: expand their skill sets, maximize their exposure to new occupational niches, exploit networks). The individualizing concept of employability comes from Kanter (1995), who proposed that workers should avoid seeking employment security with a single firm, but rather focus on making oneself employable across firms. Employability captures the various forms of work labor force participants must engage in to stay competitive given the volatility and instability of the labor market. I examine mechanisms low-wage, precariously positioned workers develop to mitigate the deleterious aspects of employment (poverty wages, volatility, insecurity). Specifically, I show how they piece together careers (broadly defined) in the low-wage market and strive to increase their employability. While much research suggests that public policy should focus on enabling workers to move up and out of low-wage work, some sociologists and economists contend that, given the realities of our service-based economy, this is not possible, making it important to understand how workers cope with and overcome some of the disadvantages inherent in poverty level employment.

Author

• Brian William Halpin, University of California-Davis