Insecure Employment Relationships in Flexible and Regulated Labor Markets: Trend, Distribution, and Consequences in the United States and France

"(...) Many scholars have argued that forces of globalization are weakening employment security in contemporary industrialized societies, and that an important mechanism for this effect is the utilization by employers of contingent jobs. The plausibility of this conjecture is tested through an examination of trends, industry distribution, and career consequences of contingent jobs in France and the U.S. While some globalization effects are apparent, large and persisting differences in the rate and industry distribution of contingent jobs between the U.S. and France instead appear due to institutional differences concerning the structure of wages and the economic role of the state. National differences in aggregate employment insecurity derive not only from cross-nationally distinctive effects of insecure employment statuses on subsequent career outcomes, but also from cross-national differences in the distribution of workers across these statuses. While the French labor market has greater overall instability because of its relatively high share of contingent jobs and high unemployment rates, the American labor market has offsetting greater risks for workers in standard jobs that derive from its higher proportion of low-tenure workers. But whatever its specific institutional form, our results demonstrate that employment insecurity has negative career consequences. (...)"