Current debates about changing patterns of work tend to be structured around Atkinson's model of the flexible firm, which is similar to Loveridge's model of firm-specific labour markets. Two spring 1987 national surveys, of workers and of employers, are analysed to show that the balance between core and periphery in the workforce is indeed changing, but that this labour force restructuring is due primarily to traditional and opportunistic approaches to the use of peripheral workers among employers. Employers with a conscious core- periphery manpower strategy constitute a small minority and they do not employ disproportionate numbers of peripheral workers. They are distinguished by a more thoroughgoing reorganisation of work, with greater use of subcontractors, the self-employed and agency workers. The long-term implications are considered.
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