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Measuring Employment Arrangements in the European Labour Force: A Typological Approach

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Abstract

In this article employment quality in the EU27 is investigated by means of a typological approach, based on several features of the employment conditions and relations characterising jobs. The analyses are drawing on data from the 2005 European Working Conditions Survey. Results of Latent Class Cluster Analyses show that it is empirically and theoretically possible to reduce a multitude of factors determining the quality of employment into five different types of jobs regarding their employment quality: SER-like jobs, instrumental jobs, precarious unsustainable jobs, precarious intensive jobs and portfolio jobs. These five types of jobs are strongly related with important covariates such as the socio-demographic profile of workers, organisation level features and indicators of the intrinsic nature of work tasks. Moreover, they are clearly distributed differently between countries within the EU27. The findings from this innovative approach towards the quality of employment are discussed in terms of the implications for the measurement of contemporary employment arrangements in Europe.

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Acknowledgments

The research for this article has been supported by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), grant number G.0440.09 N. The authors would like to thank their former colleague Maya Braeckman for the preparatory work and the preliminary analyses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Interface Demography, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 5, 1050, Brussels, Belgium

    Karen Van Aerden & Christophe Vanroelen

  2. Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Tilburg University, Warandelaan 2, Postbus 90153, 5000 LE, Tilburg, The Netherlands

    Guy Moors

  3. Department of Sociology, Universiteit Gent, Korte Meer 5, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Katia Levecque

  4. Research Foundation Flanders, Flanders, Belgium

    Katia Levecque & Christophe Vanroelen

  5. Health Inequalities Research Group. Employment Conditions Knowledge Network (GREDS\Emconet), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain

    Christophe Vanroelen

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  1. Karen Van Aerden
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  4. Christophe Vanroelen
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Correspondence to Karen Van Aerden.

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Van Aerden, K., Moors, G., Levecque, K. et al. Measuring Employment Arrangements in the European Labour Force: A Typological Approach. Soc Indic Res 116, 771–791 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-013-0312-0

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