Introduction

This chapter identifies the key changes that have been taking place in the labour market and how these are affecting people's experience of work and employment. Employment relations as a subject takes a different perspective on labour (Rubery, 2005, 2015) than that found in a standard economics text. Instead of focusing on the market and the aggregate demand and supply of different categories of labour, employment relations recognizes that most people are in jobs and not seeking to enter or change employment at any one point in time. Employment relationships thus depend on the characteristics of the organizations that are employing the workforce, the factors that lead to people entering the labour force and seeking employment, and the factors shaping their terms and conditions. Key recent trends on both demand and supply sides have led to significant change in these three dimensions: employing organizations have been transformed by the trends of financialization and fragmentation, seeking financial returns and lower costs and responsibilities through outsourcing; and the labour supply has been transformed by its increasing feminization. The key word to describe changes in the conditions of employment is ‘flexibilization’, reflecting not only changes in employer orientations and practices, as well as changes in the labour supply, but also changing employment regulations, uses of employment contracts and welfare state practices. This analysis of the labour market pre-dates the COVID-19 pandemic in two senses: not only were the trends visible long before COVID-19 but the first draft of the chapter was also completed before COVID-19. The main text is thus complemented by an extended conclusion that both explores the implications of COVID-19 and, indeed, the subsequent cost-of-living crisis for these longer-term trends, and considers the likely direction and force of future trends without a reversal of current policy agendas.

The changing nature of employing organizations

Four key trends have been reshaping the demand side of the labour market: the sectoral shift towards service activities; the increasingly global organization of both manufacturing and service operations (Gereffi, 2012); the fragmentation of employing organizations through the use of outsourcing (Marchington et al, 2005; Weil, 2017); and the financialization of companies, which is reorienting their key objectives and behaviour (Froud et al, 2006; Appelbaum and Batt, 2014).