Temporary employment contracts and employee well-being during and after the financial crisis: Introduction to the special issue

Abstract

Temporary employment has become a feature of the contemporary labour market, although its extent varies considerably across European countries. It is widely assumed that the experience of temporary work is likely to lower worker well-being. However, a major European study in 2005 found that temporary workers reported higher well-being than permanent workers. Since then, the financial crisis of 2008 and the resulting shedding of labour seems likely to have had a damaging effect on the well-being of temporary workers. The introductory article outlines these issues and introduces the subsequent articles in this special issue which explore the well-being and employment security of temporary workers in the aftermath of the financial crisis. In drawing them together, it is noted that temporary workers appear to have fared no worse than permanent workers. Indeed, job insecurity seems to have spread to permanent workers, particularly in the Mediterranean countries, creating a renewed emphasis on the role of employability.