ABSTRACT
The preceding chapters have described the way in which the demand side of the labour market has changed for our organisations. But, more generally, there has been much concern and argument, among policy makers as well as academics, about the level of insecurity at work that has accompanied these changes. The JIWIS project was conceived against this backdrop, with a widespread worry that a higher level of job insecurity would bring with it a range of social problems for individuals, families, employers and the wider society. But before presenting the details of this project’s extensive and detailed studies of secure and insecure employees and workplaces we will set the scene by exploring changes in the level of insecurity in the British, American and European labour forces over the past three decades. Has job insecurity, as is widely believed, increased massively over the recent past, or is it yet another of those alarmist scenarios which has taken on a life of its own, but defies careful and impartial analysis of labour market data?
