Work,Employment and Society

A spell of unemployment appears to restrict job choice. We use British Labour Force Survey data for 1979-89 to model whether, after controlling for age, qualifications and other variables, the jobs that unemployed people get are different from the jobs of people who have not been unemployed. We find that they tend to be of lower skill level and more often temporary or part-time; for men with good qualifications they are also more likely to be of self-employed status. During the 1980s the skill profile of the British workforce tended to improve, but not so the jobs of recently unemployed men and women, so that, despite government training schemes, the relative chances of an unemployed person getting a low skill job increased. The strong association between recent unemployment and `non-standard' forms of employment suggests that the labour force is to some extent polarised into secure `core' and insecure `peripheral' jobs, but, despite deregulation in the private sector and the weakening of union power, we found no evidence that the degree of polarisation had increased between 1979 and 1989.

Despite considerable refinement in scientific concepts of skill, common sense concepts of skill prevail in the workplace. This paper examines common sense notions of skill and craft in United States building construction workplaces, focusing on the informal designations of construction labour (the `good craftsman,' `specialist,' and `jack-of-all-trades and master-of-none') and formal designations of union and non-union labour, using data drawn from empirical investigation. This skill ideology is examined for its role in social closure as well as contradictory aspects that may undermine collective interests. Further research on ideological discourses justifying pay, power and privilege is called for.

This paper reports the findings of a study on secretarial work in England, France and Germany, which aimed to discover whether secretarial work can justly be described as a female `ghetto' occupation. Questionnaires were issued to secretaries working in matched management consultancy and publishing firms in the three countries; 185 questionnaires were received and 61 interviews were carried out with bosses, secretaries and personnel representatives. It was found that promotion out of secretarial work is extremely rare, which corroborates the `ghetto' thesis. However, secretarial job content, especially in France and Germany, was found to be wide-ranging and varied, which runs counter to that thesis. Overall, conflicting evidence was found across the three countries, which suggests that women's work is not necessarily constructed in the same way in different countries, and points to the role played by national institutions in shaping patterns and experiences of women's employment.

The strike called by all 14 unions at Air France in November 1992 was in protest against the nationalised company's strategic plan entailing three thousand job losses by the end of 1993, with more to follow. This article discusses how a hegemonic relationship of state, labour and capital is being eroded as a result of globalised competition. However, the `new despotism' that is replacing it is still relatively benevolent. This is because the previous regime and production apparatus at Air France remains deeply entrenched.