Atypical Work and Employment Continuity

John Addison and Christopher Surfield

No 4065, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Atypical employment arrangements such as agency temporary work and contracting have long been criticized as offering more precarious and unstable work than regular employment. Using data from two datasets – the CAEAS and the NLSY79 – we determine whether workers who take such jobs rather than regular employment, or the alternative of continued job search, subsequently experience greater or lesser employment continuity. Observed differences between the various working arrangements are starkest when we do not account for unobserved individual heterogeneity. Controlling for the latter, we report that the advantage of regular work over atypical work and atypical work over continued joblessness dissipates.

Keywords: employment continuity; open-ended work; atypical work; unemployment; inactivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J40 J60 J63 M50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2009-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-ltv
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

Published - published in: Industrial Relations, 2009, 48 (4), 655-683

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Working Paper: Atypical Work and Employment Continuity (2008)
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