The DOI matches its Crossref record; 78 of the 78 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
What is precarious employment? A systematic review of definitions and operationalizations from quantitative and qualitative studies
Open accessAbstract
Objectives The lack of a common definition for precarious employment (PE) severely hampers the comparison of studies within and between countries, consequently reducing the applicability of research findings. We carried out a systematic review to summarize how PE has been conceptualized and implemented in research and identify the construct's dimensions in order to facilitate guidance on its operationalization. Methods According to PRISMA guidelines, we searched Web of Science and Scopus for publications with variations of PE in the title or abstract. The search returned 1225 unique entries, which were screened for eligibility. Exclusion criteria were (i) language other than English, (ii) lack of a definition for PE, and (iii) non-original research. A total of 63 full-text articles were included and qualitative thematic-analysis was performed in order to identify dimensions of PE. Results We identified several theory-based definitions of PE developed by previous researchers. Most definitions and operationalizations were either an accommodation to available data or the direct result of qualitative studies identifying themes of PE. The thematic-analysis of the selected articles resulted in a multidimensional construct including the following three dimensions: employment insecurity, income inadequacy, and lack of rights and protection. Conclusions Despite a growing number of studies on PE, most fail to clearly define the concept, severely restricting the advancement of the research of PE as a social determinant of health. Our combined theoretical and empirical review suggests that a common multidimensional definition could be developed and deployed in different labor market contexts using a variety of methodological approaches.
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Cites
Yaşlı Kadınlarda Üreme Sağlığı
Kokanalı, D., & Engin Üstün, Y. (n.d.) · DergiPark (Istanbul University) · Cited by 170,090
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The precariat: the new dangerous class
Allen, M., & Ainley, P. (2011) · International Studies in Sociology of Education · doi:10.1080/09620214.2011.616348 · Cited by 1,814
Precarious Employment: Understanding an Emerging Social Determinant of Health
Benach, J., Vives, A., Amable, M., Vanroelen, C., Tarafa, G., & Muntaner, C. (2014) · Annual Review of Public Health · doi:10.1146/annurev-publhealth-032013-182500 · Cited by 1,354
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How can systematic reviews incorporate qualitative research? A critical perspective
Dixon-Woods, M., Bonas, S., Booth, A., Jones, D. R., Miller, T., Sutton, A. J., Shaw, R. L., Smith, J. A., & Young, B. (2006) · Qualitative Research · doi:10.1177/1468794106058867 · Cited by 860
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“Systematic review methods are well-developed when it comes to quantitative research studies, while methods for systematically reviewing a combination of both qualitative and quantitative research are still emerging and under development (20, 21).”
BackgroundQuinlan, M., Mayhew, C., & Bohle, P. (2001) · International Journal of Health Services · doi:10.2190/607h-ttv0-qcn6-ylt4 · Cited by 711
Precarious employment : understanding labour market insecurity in Canada
Vosko, L. F. (2006) · Cited by 486
Cited by
Hajat, A., Andrea, S. B., Oddo, V. M., Winkler, M. R., & Ahonen, E. Q. (2024) · Annual Review of Public Health · doi:10.1146/annurev-publhealth-071321-042437 · Cited by 60
Peckham, T., Seixas, N., de Castro, A. B., & Hajat, A. (2022) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph191811237 · Cited by 13
Is precarious employment an occupational hazard? Evidence from Ontario, Canada
Shahidi, F. V., Liao, Q., Landsman, V., Mustard, C., Robson, L. S., Biswas, A., & Smith, P. M. (2024) · Occupational and Environmental Medicine · doi:10.1136/oemed-2024-109535 · Cited by 8
Jetha, A., Liao, Q., Smith, P., Vu, V., Biswas, A., Smith, B., & Vahid Shahidi, F. (2026) · Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health · doi:10.5271/sjweh.4312
“Although we were not able to directly assess the impacts on health outcomes in the data, we advance research by showing the extent to which LLM at work are associated with high and low levels of precarity (4, 45).”
Employment quality and mortality in Canada
Shahidi, F. V., Andreacchi, A. T., Fuller, A. E., Blair, A., Carnide, N., Harris, M. A., Pabayo, R., Smith, B., Siddiqi, A., & Smith, P. (2026) · Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health · doi:10.1136/jech-2025-224434
Metadata
- Authors
- Kreshpaj, B., Orellana, C., Burström, B., Davis, L., Hemmingsson, T., Johansson, G., Kjellberg, K., Jonsson, J., Wegman, D. H., & Bodin, T.
- Venue
- Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health
- Published
- 2020-01-05
- Volume
- 46
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 235-247
- ISSN
- 0355-3140 (ISSN-L)
- 1795-990X
- OpenAlex
- W3000031917
- Cited by
- 336
- References
- 78
- FWCI
- 9.30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
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- Kreshpaj, B., Orellana, C., Burström, B., Davis, L., Hemmingsson, T., Johansson, G., Kjellberg, K., Jonsson, J., Wegman, D. H., & Bodin, T. (2020). What is precarious employment? A systematic review of definitions and operationalizations from quantitative and qualitative studies. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health. https://doi.org/10.5271/sjweh.3875
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