Instability, Precariousness, Insecurity: What Do We Mean when We Talk About «Job Insecurity»?

In scientific literature there is a great conceptual confusion about thedefinition of «job insecurity». In fact, jobs can be insecure for three main reasons:because they are subjectively felt insecure; because they are short-term by contract; or,finally, because of short tenure. Following recent research on Italian labour market,we show how useful is to keep these dimensions separate to track and understandthe evolution of labour market dynamics. For each insecurity dimension an overviewof the literature as well as original analytical insights over the topics considered areprovided. The analysis is addressed to stimulate further research, presenting and usingindicators for the study of job insecurity that are rarely used in Italian literature.Finally, all along the article we compare our results with mainstream sociologicaltheories about job insecurity, showing how the use of empirical data allow us torender a more realistic and many-sided image of western countries labour market.