A typology of precarious employment for Chile: precariousness as a cross-class phenomenon

This article presents a proposal for defining and measuring precarious employment. We begin by relating this phenomenon to the changing faces of work and social class. We then expound a methodology that combines the techniques of correspondence analysis and k-means clustering to produce a typology of nine groups of precarious employment. This reveals such employment to be a multidimensional phenomenon combining aspects of stability, insecurity, income, working conditions and working hours. The results point to a phenomenon that is not tied to any one class or position in the labour market or to any one dimension or indicator but is rather a multidimensional process that cuts across class divides and pervades different positions and situations throughout the Chilean employment structure.