Precarious employment is a form of unstable work characterized by “high levels of uncertainty, low income, a lack of control over the labour process, and limited access to regulatory protections” (Noack & Vosko, 2011,... [ view full abstract ]
Precarious employment is a form of unstable work characterized by “high levels of uncertainty, low income, a lack of control over the labour process, and limited access to regulatory protections” (Noack & Vosko, 2011, p.3). Often experienced as contract work, involuntary part-time work, low wage work, and unincorporated self-employment with no paid help (Bollman, 2017) precarious employment contrasts the identifiers typically associated with a standard employment relationship, which are: “access to training, regulatory protections and social benefits, decent wages, and a social wage” (Noack & Vosko, 2011, p.3). There is a well-developed body of literature providing evidence that there are negative health, economic, and social impacts related to precarious employment in urban centres, while little consideration has been given to the particularities that might make the rural work experience different.
Rural employees for example, are more likely to be underemployed, are more likely to re-enter the labour market after having a break in employment, and earn lower wages while experiencing a lower cost of living than their urban counterparts (Bollman, 2015; Vera-Toscano et al., 2004). These differences, along with issues of transportation, population, and industry, highlight how investigating precarious employment in urban centres may not capture the full rural experience of the same trend.
This presentation investigates the outcome of a project investigating rural precarious employment, using the Canadian province of Ontario as a case study.
