Careers are deemed to provide job satisfaction.

Non-standard Employment growth and Contribution to Increased Flexiblity

1.    Introduction

Non-standard work arrangements are part-time, temporary, own-account self-employed, and  multiple jobs (not counting overlaps) (Gunderson and Riddell 2000).

Paid jobs (that is, where an employee receives a wage or salary from an employer) nevertheless, continue to predominate. For example, excluding farmers and fishers, fewer than one tenth of working people are self-employed. Among the sectors with significant levels of self-employment are business services and construction (both with one in five workers self-employed) followed by transportation, trade, and insurance and real estate agencies (all with one in 10 workers self-employed).

While some of the increase in non-standard employment is cyclical , that is, related to recessions and/or weak economic growth - deeper structural forces are also causing this permanent shift in how work is being done. The growth in non-standard employment has resulted from several interrelated structural factors.

Firstly, there is this shift from a goods-producing to a service economy. Retail, tourism, entertainment and personal service industries have grown in terms of their share of the total labour force, and these sectors have the highest concentrations of part-time work.

Secondly, new forms of business organization have occured with growth in small-size businesses and contracting out by firms which means more short-term employment.

Thirdly, there is increased competition in both domestic and foreign markets.  With increased competition this puts pressure on employers to lower their costs, including wage costs. Workers with non-standard jobs do not usually participate in pension and benefit plans, which can add 25 to 30 percent to the bill for wages.

It should be noted that not all non-standard jobs are bad jobs. Some part-time jobs provide good pay and benefits, as well as stable employment and prospects for advancement. They are preferred by many working mothers, students and highly paid consultants. However, many non-standard jobs do not provide individuals with predictable hours or a predictable income.

In his book Job Shift, William Bridges (1994) cooked-up the phrase "dejobbing" to describe this trend to non-standard employment. He says that workers are going to be more like independent business people (or one-person businesses) than conventional employees. They are possibly working for more than one client at a time and to move back and forth across organizational boundaries, being employed full-time for a period of time, then hired to do contract work, then hired to consult, and then brought back in-house (maybe part-time ) on a long-term assignment. He concludes that, although there will always be enormous amounts of work to do in our economy, the work will not be contained in that old familiar employment form of standard full-time, full-year jobs.

2.    Labour Market Trends

Companies that make greater use of technology create the most jobs. The more highly use of technology, the greater the job creation over time. While many of the jobs created by  new technology are frequently not accessible to the people who have been displaced, job  creation by companies that make greater use of technology is not limited to just scientific or technical jobs.The service sector is the largest generator of jobs and many of the jobs created in this  sector do not demand high-level technical skills. Growing manufacturing companies in high-tech sectors also need workers in clerical, finance, shipping/warehousing, sales and  marketing fields.

The peculiar thing of our times is that many people today work long hours while many others have  no work at all. Increasingly, people who want full-time, permanent employment have to settle  for part-time, temporary or seasonal work. This form of underemployment is as troubling as  unemployment, since more and more people are relying on these non-standard or contingent  jobs (William Bridges, 1994, p. 15).

Jobs can be defined as standard and non-standard. Standard jobs are those that are full- time, full-year with a single employer. They usually offer benefits and some career  prospects. The usual employer is a large firm or government. In Canada, for example, just over half of  the  workers still hold standard jobs.

Part-time, contract and temporary-help agency work are examples of non-standard employment.  Non-standard employment also includes own-account self-employment, which is the selling of  goods or services by people who do not employ workers themselves.

While more full-time jobs were created in 1994 than part-time ones, almost half (46 percent)  of the 3.5 million jobs created in Canada between 1975 and 1993 came from part-time jobs. By  1993, nearly one quarter of all jobs in Canada provided less than 30 hours of work per week  compared to 14 percent in 1975.

Another trend to non-standard employment is the higher growth rate of self -employment. Since the last decade, self-employment has grown twice as fast as regular  employment, as many companies and governments have contracted out services that used to be  provided in-house by workers in standard jobs. Self-employment have grown  fast among older workers: approximately four in 10 are 45 years or older.  However, the Federal Business Development Bank reports that one quarter of Canada's one  million small businesses are owned and operated by people aged 18 to 29.

 

      2.1   Improvements in Technology and Globalization

     

Technology and globalization go side-by-side. Globalization requires technology, which in  turn drives firms to plan production and sales globaly. Technology changes the  work we do and the jobs created demand more education and  training. It also changes the way business operates by transforming relationships between  suppliers, producers, retailers and customers. (Ross, 1993, p. xii). This is an important point because rapidly growing companies have a great deal of work that needs to be done, but they offer fewer and fewer traditional jobs.

Globally competitive organizations use a change-driven style of operation that requires flexibility and fast responses to keep up with changes in the marketplace. Because conventional jobs obstructs flexibility and speedy response to the marketplace, many organizations are turning over even their most important tasks to temporary and contract workers.

This just-in-time work force are not just clerical or assembly-line workers. Temporary hires do tough electrical engineering, and they work as senior benefits analysts, lawyers and accountants. Even in the traditional professions of health and education, and in government service, where job security has been paramount, there have been reduced work weeks and layoffs.

      2.2   The Shift to Non-Standard Employment

Non-standard employment can be defined as employment that deviates in some way from the  model of continuing, full-time waged work (Hepple, 1992). Non-standard employment,  especially temporary and part-time work arrangements, may play an important role in  increasing external numerical flexibility. In common with many other OECD countries, there  has been a dramatic growth in non-standard employment in Australia over the past decade. The  relative growth of non-standard employment and the relative decline of standard employment  in Australia are demonstrated in the two tables in the appendice below.

From the data presented below, it is possible to make the following observations. First, the  proportion of Australian employees who are employed on a full-time, permanent basis (the  standard workforce) has declined during the 1980s and continues to decline in the 1990s.  This decline has occurred in all industries.

Secondly, accompanying the decline in standard employment there has been an absolute and  relative increase in the non-standard workforce in Australia, for example. Almost 45 per cent of Australian employees are employed on a non-standard basis (Campbell,  1997). As the figures in table 2 shows, most of the increase in non-standard  employment is accounted for by the growth of part-time and casual employment. Furthermore,  the figures indicate that the growth of part-time casual and full-time casual employment are the most important sources of growth of non-standard employment.

As the figures in table 3 show, Australia has one of the  highest levels of temporary employment in the OECD. Unlike other countries with high levels  of temporary employment, the majority of temporary employment in Australia is not accounted  for by seasonal fluctuations in employment but is mainly due to the high level of  casual employment (Romeyn, 1994: 15).  While casual employment has been key in the Australian labour  market for decades, over the past decade casual employment has doubled. Casual employees now  account for approximately 25 per cent of all employed persons in Australia (Campbell, 1996b:  175). Casual employment is based on the assumption that the employment contract is of such a  short duration as to barely exist, compared with permanent employees where the employment  contract is ongoing and indefinite. Casual  employees are not entitled to employment benefits associated with full-time employment  (Campbell, 1996a: 44-45).

      2.3   Industrial Shifts

Working for wages was a precarious existence. People had always provided as much of their  own food and clothing as they could and worked at (old-style) jobs for money to meet their  extra or special needs. Once those needs were met, pre-industrial people slipped back into  subsistence until new needs arose. The idea of working constantly for wages and then using  that money to purchase everything one needed, and the idea of continuing to work, even after  essentials were provided for, to accumulate savings to buy a house or provide for old age  were totally new concepts.

Many writers and artists of that period denounced the factories and the cities that sprawled  out around them. Charles Dickens portrayed a long line of harsh and heartless employers who  cared more about the job than the person who filled it.

3.0   The Impact of Demographic Change

Investigating demographic information to help make career decisions might include reading  industry reports. For instance, Organizing for the Future, the national report on the  horticultural industry, states that many growers do not retire at the normal retirement age,  and there are now relatively high proportions of operators whose average age is over 50. In  spite of staying in the labour force past normal retirement age, they do eventually leave.  Because of their average age, the time is coming soon when large numbers of operators will  need to be replaced. Someone studying the field would also note that the horticulture  industry is male-dominated at this point in time.

4.0   The impact on increased flexibility.

Employers are now reluctant to commit themselves to full-time, full-year "permanent"  employees and prefer to get workers , from clerical staff to sophisticated consultants , on  a project-by-project basis.

Flexibility is a key issue. Without the long-term commitment and salary burden of an  extensive full-time work force, companies are more agile because part-time workers' hours of  work can be easily changed and "temp" work just as long as required.

Just-in-time production has become just-in-time work forces. For example, if a company  starts making a new product, all aspects of the launch , such as sales, marketing and  telemarketing, can be handled by a temporary work force. If a cross-country road show is  planned, a temporary staff can be assembled in each city.

People who were most successful in a secure, standard employment situation are going to have  a difficult time adjusting their job-seeking skills and employment attitudes to the new  order. On the other hand, many workers such as visible minorities, women, aboriginals and  people with disabilities, have already accommodated to non-standard employment situations,  whether by choice or necessity. Those who have already adapted to these emerging work  structures may have a subtle advantage by virtue of the new trend (Bridges, 1994).

Increasingly, employees want flexible hours - working from eight to four, for example, instead of from nine to five. Some prefer compressed working hours, by which it is possible, for instance, to take off every second Friday by working longer hours over the preceding nine days. And some, though by no means all, working people would like to consider such options as the four-day week, or extended vacations, or temporary part-time status, even if it means some reduction of income. These changing attitudes are likely to have a growing impact on work-time practices.

5.0   Conclusion

Survey evidence also suggests that the growth of casual and other forms of non-standard  employment in Australia does not reflect the general adoption of a "flexible firm" strategy  by employers (Atkinson, 1984). Instead, the available evidence suggests that the increase in  non-standard employment is mainly associated with cost minimization strategies as  Australian employers react to recession and increased competition, in a manner consistent  with Pollert's criticisms of the flexible firm hypothesis (Brosnan and Thornthwaite, 1994;  Pollert, 1988).

It can be argued that the process of labour market deregulation and decentralization  of collective bargaining has encouraged the growth of non-standard employment in Australia.  This says that external numerical labour market flexibility has been increased in  relation to other forms of labour use strategy that employers may pursue, but at the expense  of protection enjoyed by employees. Most of the growth of non-standard employment in  Australia has been in the category of casual employment and these workers do not have access  to the employment protections associated with full-time standard employment. Hence, the rights to employment security do not apply to casual employees (  Creighton, 1994; Brookes, 1994).

Also, we find that information and technology make-up new-economy industries, so knowledge workers, such as  medical technologists, materials scientists, broadcast engineers and paralegals, will be in  demand. These will probably make the core or standard workers while some of them may make non-standard employment with other non-key or core-workers who will on majority comprise of non-standard workers.

Knowledge workers are now more likely than in past years to lose the jobs they have, but it  is can be agreed that knowledge workers have a better chance than workers in many other  sectors of the economy of finding new jobs.

Overall, we can safely say that non-standard employment has increased bringing with it the attendant results of increased numerical flexibility and financial flexibility of human resource management not as a flexible firm strategy but more so of responding to cost minimization strategies forced by recession and firm competiveness.

6.0   Summary

Non-standard work arrangements are part-time, temporary, own-account self-employed, and  multiple jobs. While some of the increase in non-standard employment is cyclical , that is, related to recessions and/or weak economic growth, deeper structural forces are also causing this permanent shift in how work is being done. The growth in non-standard employment has resulted from several interrelated structural factors.

Firstly, there is this shift from a goods-producing to a service economy. Retail, tourism, entertainment and personal service industries have grown in terms of their share of the total labour force, and these sectors have the highest concentrations of part-time work.

Secondly, new forms of business organization have occurred with growth in small-size businesses and contracting out by firms which means more short-term employment.

Thirdly, there is increased competition in both domestic and foreign markets.  With increased competition this puts pressure on employers to lower their costs, including wage costs. Workers with non-standard jobs do not usually participate in pension and benefit plans, which can add 25 to 30 percent to the bill for wages.

 Increasingly, people who want full-time, permanent employment have to settle  for part-time, temporary or seasonal work. This form of underemployment is as troubling as  unemployment, since more and more people are relying on these non-standard or temporary  jobs (William Bridges, 1994, p. 15).

Flexibility is a key issue in non-standard work. Without the long-term commitment and salary burden of  full-time work force, companies are more flexible and active because part-time workers' hours of  work can be easily changed and "temp" work just as long as required.

Overall, we can say that there is increased in non-standard employment which brings with it the attendant increased numerical and financial flexibility of human resource management but not so much in response to a flexible firm strategy but more of cost cutting measures in the face of recession and being more competitive.

7.0   Appendices

Appendix 1.0

Labour Market Dynamics

Some Factors Contributing to Supply and Demand:

Supply of workers _ Dependent on:

Birth Rate

Workforce Participation Rates

Rate of Immigrants

Demand for Workers: Dependent on:

Demand for private consumption

Need for public expenditures like Health Care and Education

Key commodities/Services Required

Occupation Required

Employment Available to Workers.

(Source:Canadian Occupational Projection System. COPS Labour Market Outlook COPS Reference 1992  Projections. Human Resources Development Canada.)

Table 1: The standard and non-standard workforce in Australia, 1982-1995 (ratio of total workforce)

Year

Standard workforce (full-time, permanent employees)

Non-standard workforce

Part-time permanent employees

Full-time casual employees

Part-time casual employees

Non- employees

1982

0.67

0.33

--

--

--

0.16

1986

0.63

0.37

--

--

--

0.17

1988

0.64

0.36

0.05

0.04

0.11

0.16

1989

0.63

0.37

0.05

0.04

0.12

0.16

1990

0.62

0.38

0.05

0.04

0.12

0.17

1991

0.60

0.40

0.06

0.04

0.12

0.17

1992

0.59

0.41

0.07

0.05

0.12

0.17

1993

0.58

0.42

0.07

0.05

0.14

0.16

1994

0.56

0.44

0.07

0.06

0.14

0.17

1995

0.57

0.43

0.07

0.05

0.14

0.17

Source: Burgess and Ryan, 1966: 153

Table 2: Decomposition of non-standard employment in Australia, 1988-1994

Year

Full-time casual employees

Part-time permanent employees

Part-time casual employees

Employers

Self- employed

Unpaid family workers

Total non- standard workforce

Non- standard workforce/ total workforce

1988

284

357

771

380

745

66

2690

0.365

1989

323

408

887

370

774

53

2845

0.368

1990

414

429

926

388

787

66

3025

0.386

1991

335

447

805

346

782

72

2950

0.384

1992

352

498

910

350

855

77

3144

0.409

1993

404

502

1030

363

869

70

3189

0.415

1994

557

554

1022

356

853

82

3424

0.445

% of total workforce

16.3

16.2

29.8

10.4

24.9

2.4

.

.

1994 % of growth 1988-1994

96.1

55.2

32.5

-6.4

14.5

24.2

27.3

.

Source: Burgess and Ryan, 1996: 155

Table 3: Temporary workers as a percentage of total dependent employment, 1987-1991 in selected OECD countries

Country

1987

1988

1989

1990

1991

Australia

21.2

18.7

19.9

19.3

19.7

Belgium

5.1

5.0

5.1

5.3

5.1

Denmark

11.1

11.5

10.0

10.8

11.9

Finland

11.2

-

11.9

-

13.1

France

7.1

7.8

8.5

10.5

10.2

Germany

11.6

11.4

11.0

10.5

9.5

Greece

16.6

17.6

17.2

16.6

14.7

Ireland

8.6

9.1

8.6

8.5

8.3

Italy

5.4

5.8

6.3

5.2

5.4

Japan

10.5

10.7

10.8

10.7

10.5

Netherlands

9.4

8.7

8.5

7.6

7.7

Portugal

16.9

18.5

18.7

18.6

16.5

Spain

15.6

22.4

26.6

29.8

32.2

United Kingdom

6.3

6.0

5.4

5.2

5.3

Source: Drawn from OECD, 1993: 21

8.0   References

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McKeown, T. & Hanley, G. (2004). Retaining & Sustaining the Contract Worker (refereed  conference paper presented at ANZAM Queenstown, NZ Dec.2004) McKeown, J.T. (2003).

Contractors and commitment? An HRM challenge. Journal of Manpower, 24(3), 169-186.

McKeown, T. (2003) The polarisation of Non-Standard Work presented at the International HRM  conference, Limerick 2003

McKeown, T. (2003) Non-Standard Employment presented at AIRAANZ 20003

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Economic Council of Canada. (1990). Good Jobs, Bad Jobs: Employment in the Service Economy.

Economist, The. (1994). "The Downside". September 17.

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Human Resources Development Canada, Working Group on Career Management in the Public  Service. (1992). Career Management in the Public Service.

Human Resources Development Canada. (1990b). Job Futures. 3rd edition. Ottawa: Human  Resources Development Canada.

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McLaughlin, Mary Ann. (1992). Employability Skills Profile. Ottawa: Conference Board of  Canada.

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