Working Part-Time: Risks and Opportunities

The hiring of part-time and temporary workers has historically been a mechanism for adjusting imbalances between supply and demand in the labor market. The use of such workers has increased dramatically as technological changes have put a premium on flexibility, and as fringe benefits have come to constitute an increasing percentage of labor costs. Flexibility is sought not only by organizations, but also by individuals: students, women with children, disabled persons, and retirees all benefit by part-time opportunities. Part-Time Work discusses these opportunities, and the risk involved in employment which is sometimes underpaid and devalued, and from which movement to full-time positions is difficult. This volume represents the work of a cross-section of specialists in labor economics, industrial relations specialists, and social scientists who are engaged in research on the transformation of work in Canada, the United States, and Great Britain. Chapters focus on the structural aspects of part-time work, conditions under which such work is performed, constraints imposed on employers by official agencies, and expectations and attitudes of part-time workers rooted in a particular society. Part-Time Work will prove particularly useful to sociologists, labor specialists, and relevant government agencies, organizations, and unions.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Overview Part-Time Work in the North Atlantic Triangle: The United States, the United Kingdom and Canada by Craig McKie Shaping and Re-Shaping Part-Time Work Part-Timers: Living on Half-Rations by Sar A. Levitan and Elizabeth A. Conway Government and Part-Time Work in Canada by Robert J. Drummond Part-Time Work and the State in Britain, 1941-1987 by Celia J. Briar Part-Time Employment and Industrial Relations in Great Britain in the 1980s by David G. Blanchflower Ambivalence or Apprehension? The Labor Movement and the Part-Time Worker in Canada by Norene Pupo and Ann Duffy Part-Time Work and the Life Cycle Working Youths in the United States by Robert A. Rothman Do Part-Time Jobs Improve the Labor Market Chances of High School Graduates? by Graham S. Lowe and Harvey Krahn Part-Time Work among Young People in Britain by Angela M. Dale Women's Part-Time Work in Britain and the United States by Shirley Dex Part-Time Employment among Canadian Women: A Nexus between Capitalism and Patriarchy by Ann Duffy and Norene Pupo Part-Time Work and the Older Worker in Canada by P. Lynn McDonald and Richard A. Wanner Employment and Marginalism of Older Workers in the United States by Lonnie Golden A Closer Look: Industrial and Occupational Cases Two Faces of Part-Time Work: Good and Bad Part-Time Jobs in U.S. Service Industries by Chris Tilly Part-Time and Occasional Teachers in Ontario's Elementary School System by Isik Uria Zeytinoglu Gender and Career Trajectory: the Case of Part-Time Faculty by Katherina L. P. Lundy and Barbara D. Warme The Crisis in Hospital Nursing and the Retreat to Part-Time Work by Jerry Patrick White What of the Future? Part-Time Work: A Hope and a Peril by Hilda Kahne Work Sharing and Job Sharing: Whose Priorities Prevail? by Vivienne Monty Bibliography Index

About the Author :
BARBARA D. WARME, a sociologist, is currently doing research in the Netherlands and is on leave from York University in Canada. At the University, she has taught in the areas of public policy and the sociology of work, and was the Director of the Writing Workshop for six years. She collaborated with Kitty Lundy on Work In The Canadian Context: Continuity Despite Change and Sociology: A Window on the World. KATHERINA L.P. LUNDY was, at the time of her death, a sociologist at Atkinson College, York University and also at Erindale College at the University of Toronto. Most of her research was in occupational sociology and has been widely reported at conferences and in journal articles. She co-authored this and four other books with Barbara Warme. LARRY A. LUNDY develops computer-assisted modes of analysis of social service data for the provincial Ministry of Community and Social Services in Ontario. His research and teaching have been in anthropology, social work, and sociology.

Review :
?-academics who understand hoe central the topic is to the unfolding 21st century workplace scenario will definitely want to add this book to their "must Skim" shelf.?-Labor Studies "-academics who understand hoe central the topic is to the unfolding 21st century workplace scenario will definitely want to add this book to their "must Skim" shelf."-Labor Studies