I’ve written numerous times in the past few months about the perilous nature of those in low-skilled employment.  Not only are they most at risk from both economic and technological disruption, but they are also less likely to engage in the kind of training and education that will give them access to the higher-skilled work that returns after any period of disruption.

What’s more, new research from the University of Exeter Business School suggests that such people are also less likely to band together for support.

The research wanted to explore whether members of the ‘precariat’, who are defined as those in insecure and low-income employment, were prone to unite together to try and improve their collective lot.

Band of giggers

It should be said that it’s not entirely clear where the perception of workers like this banding together to help one another has come from, but the researchers conclude that the perception is certainly far from true.

“The idea of the existence of a formed and unified ‘precariat’ is increasingly taken for granted,” the researchers explain.  “Our research suggests that this tends to be over-stated. We need to also take into account personal life histories and working trajectories, individual experiences and aspirations; so their relationship with their boss, their own sense of pride in their job and their personal circumstances all play a part.”

The researchers found that membership of a particular social group is no guarantee of their unitedness with their peers, nor indeed is their attitude towards the workplace.  So even if they have precarious jobs and don’t really like their work, it seems unlikely that they will join together to try and make thins better.

Who are the precariat?

Suffice to say, the so called precariat are not strictly confined to gig workers, with the researchers boiling them down into three main groups:

• Workers who have lost access to secure or meaningful employment.
• Migrants and ethnic minority workers who have left their home countries.
• Educated members of the group who lack access to a career path.

The precariat were also found to differ in the way they interact with their manager, their social status and even their social relationships.  For instance, migrant workers were often all too well aware of their role in low-paid work, but because even this relatively low salary was several times higher than they might earn at home, it gave them a very different perspective on the work than native colleagues.

It should be said that whilst most media attention has focused on gig workers and other people on ‘zero hour’ contracts, this research primarily examined the lives of cleaners, care workers and farm workers.

Modern working practices

It’s a topic that was examined in the recently approved Taylor review into modern working practices that was conducted by the RSA’s chief Matthew Taylor.  The report was formulated on the basis that many workers had not enjoyed what many believe to be their fair share of the spoils of economic growth as the world emerged from the 2008 financial crisis.

Not only has wage growth largely stagnated, but many of the jobs that have emerged since the crisis have been the kind of contingent work covered in the original research.  Many have called for such work to receive the same range of employment rights enjoyed by salaried workers.

As the research suggests however, there doesn’t seem a great deal of motivation to pull together to try and secure such rights.  Indeed, research has shown that around 75% of those on zero hour contracts are happy with the hours they work.  What’s more, access to short-term labor is vital in many industries where demand fluctuates greatly.

A balanced approach

Taylor argues that a moderate and balanced approach can help to maintain jobs growth whilst also ensuring people aren’t unduly exploited.  For instance, he notes that despite unemployment continuing to fall, wages have nonetheless began to creep up, with the last year seeing wages in the UK rise by 3.1%, which represents the biggest leap in a decade.

What’s more, the data suggests that much of the growth in new work in the past year has been of the full-time variety, with self-employment numbers largely static and zero hours work tumbling.

Suffice to say, there is still much to be done, both in terms of understanding new forms of work and helping ensure that jobs are as healthy as possible.  For instance, a recent study from Oxford University suggests that the relatively poor working conditions associated with online gig work can affect our wellbeing.

The study looks specifically at digital gig work that allows people to work internationally, whether in software development, online translation or a range of other disciplines.  The paper suggests that there are currently around 70 million people registered across a range of online work platforms.

The research finds that whilst the flexibility and autonomy of such work is largely very appealing to workers, there are consequences that aren’t always evident from the start.

“Our findings demonstrate evidence that the autonomy of working in the gig economy often comes at the price of long, irregular and anti-social hours, which can lead to sleep deprivation and exhaustion,” the authors say.

A varied picture

A recent study from Prudential also found that gig workers were not a uniform bunch. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the analysis found that people use the gig economy very differently at the various stages of their life.

For instance, Millennial gig workers were most likely to proactively work in this way as they found the flexibility and freedom of the work most in line with their long-term aspirations. By contrast, gig workers in Gen X and Baby Boomer generations were much more likely to enter into gig work because of circumstances outside of their control. This then contributed to a general sense of dissatisfaction with their circumstances among Gen X gig workers, who were much more likely to prefer to move back into a traditional, full-time job.

The report expressed particular concern about the financial implications for this group as their precarious situation makes it hard to save sufficiently for their retirement. Indeed, a worrying 63% of Gen X gig workers revealed that they were struggling financially, which is comfortably more than those from the other two age groups.

Pragmatism and nuance are not always particularly evident in politics, and so there remains a risk that policy makers will take an excessively broad-brush approach to a topic that is nothing if not complex.  As we gain a better understanding of the various new ways of working however, this will not be for lack of context.