IST 605: Sociology of Labor

Marx notes a gap in the sociology of work literature in terms of workers who have signed non-competes, and points out that almost half of technical professionals in the United States have to sign such agreements. This is a measure taken by firms to limit their workers’ mobility, and it in turn restructures the labor market. The author interviews 52 randomly selected patent holders and surveys 1,029 engineers from numerous industries. Marx finds that professionals who have had to sign non-compete agreements are more likely to leave their technical field in order to avoid a potential lawsuit.

Using the Current Population Survey Supplement on Contingent Work, the authors study the pervasiveness of nonstandard employment in the nonmetropolitan United States. Their research revealed that 22.3 percent of U.S. workers held nonstandard employment from the years 1999 to 2001. Central city and suburban workers were less likely to hold nonstandard employment than nonmetropolitan workers. Nonmetropolitan areas in the United States were more susceptible to nonstandard employment because employers hold more discretion in terms of setting wages and establishing other job characteristics.

Kalleberg notes the growth in precarious work in the United States since the 1970s and examines how workplace arrangements have resulted in this rise in precarity. The journal delves into theories of institutions which perpetuate precarious work. Kalleberg argues that sociologists are positioned to be able to offer analysis on the issue of worker precarity and employment relations. Such insight, the author argues, could help shape public policy that could address the issues of current employment relations.

This ethnographic study aims to better understand the experiences of undocumented immigrant workers in the United States and how the 2016 presidential election of Donald Trump amplified the vulnerabilities of their undocumented status. The authors explore the tension between the invisible labor undocumented workers perform while inhabiting a hypervisible identity. Undocumented workers must abide by the laws of the country, yet they are not granted the same protections and rights that these laws grant to “legal” residents. The findings demonstrate how workplace violations regularly encountered by undocumented immigrants can be explained by the denial of both legal and non legal recourse.

Using the 1995 Current Population Survey, the authors explore the relationship between “bad” job characteristics and nonstandard employment in the United States. The authors define “bad” jobs as jobs with low pay, no health insurance, and no pension benefits. Approximately one in seven U.S. jobs holds one of these characteristics. The authors found that, although nonstandard work can provide workers with flexibility, such flexibility comes at a high price.