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Falling through the gaps: insecure work and the social safety net

Labour market support systems need to adapt to the growing number of workers in vulnerable employment.

Published:
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Kashfi Halford/Flickr. (CC 2.0 by-nc)

Vulnerable employment, with workers experiencing high levels of precariousness, is a global phenomenon. The ILO projects global growth in vulnerable forms of employment to grow by 11 million a year. The impacts of this are being felt across developed, emerging and developing countries.

In the UK, much concern about the changing labour market has been framed in terms of the shift in risk that has occurred between employers and individuals. The gig economy is often used to epitomise the imbalance in power between those controlling the technology, and those carrying out the tasks: