Paid employment vs vulnerable employment: a brief study of employment patterns by status in employment

The status in employment indicator refers to a set of specific characteristics of an employed person's job, namely the type of contract under which he or she is employed, the type of economic risk he or she faces in this job (including the attachment between the person and the job), and the type of authority that he or she has over the work establishment and other workers. Not surprisingly, status in employment is closely linked to the quality of employment, as it determines to a great extent the job holder's working conditions. Many aspects of the working life such as job security, basic remuneration, earnings security, working time, and whether the job is in the formal or informal sector are directly related to workers' status in employment. Employees (that is, employed persons holding paid employment jobs) represent the category of status in employment usually associated with more job security and better working conditions in general, whereas own-account workers and contributing family workers constitute two statuses in employment categories regarded as vulnerable employment. Although this is true in general terms, it is important to keep in mind that some employees do lack basic elements of decent work (such as not being covered by social security and/or social dialogue) while some own-account workers and contributing family workers are not in a precarious or vulnerable situation. Thus, while the share of own-account workers and contributing family workers is a valuable and reasonable proxy to measure vulnerability, it is nevertheless an imperfect one.

Given the strong relationship between the status in employment and the working and living conditions of the employed, data on the employment distribution by status in employment are highly relevant for labour market studies as they convey a great deal of information on the situation of workers. In order to have a fuller picture of labour market conditions, it is particularly useful to analyse data on the patterns and trends of the incidence of paid employment and that of vulnerable employment in the world. What do the data show? Which categories of status in employment are growing the fastest? Is vulnerable employment decreasing? This brief seeks to answer these questions, by focusing first on the global and regional patterns of the employment distribution by status in employment and then casting light on the differences between male and female workers in this regard. Finally, the brief explores the latest trends of the status in employment categories.

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