ABSTRACT
Theories of labor market segmentation have been concerned with the problem of marginal economic groups—the low-skilled and poorly paid workers in menial or routine jobs who are the first to be fired during recessions. The researchers found that marginal workers had motives for their behavior which did not square at all with the picture painted of them in the orthodox theory. If allowance is made for the variety of possible endings, the story of all kinds of marginal workers has been the same through much of the history of industrial society. The indifference of many unskilled workers to an industrial career derives not from rejection of the idea of a career, but from rejection of the idea of a career in industry. The description of the behavior of the peasant workers in the French metal-working factory suggests that the combination of income from farming can perpetuate the peasant worker's instrumental attitude to work.
