Precarious employment: conceptualization of the term and assessment criteria

The transition of Russia toward a market economy has resulted in public relations’ transformation in social life including social-labour relationships. It has led to the formation and development of new work statuses. On the one hand, it has extended potential for the use of work-force, made labour market more flexible. On the other hand, these changes have shattered socio-economic standing of many employees due to the fact that some work forms lead to income insecurity, full or part deformalization of employer-employee relationships; they increase the risk of dismissal, weaken labour guarantees and infringe rights. Work characterized by these threats and risks is defined as “precarious employment”. Whereas, in socio-economic sciences there are no detailed criteria allowing to classify employment as stable or precarious. Canadian researchers have contributed the most to the solving of this problem - C. Cranford, L. Vosko, N. Zhukevich, who have articulated the concept “precarious work” and studied it based on official Canadian statistics. However not all results are suitable for Russia due to certain peculiarities of the Russian model of labour market. G. Standing’s studies of precariat are also of great importance. The article sums up and analyses works of foreign and Russian researchers on precarious work in order to determine main criteria for assessing sustainability of employment in Russia and its regions.