Explaining the Relationship between Flexible Employment and Labour Market Regulation

This chapter sets out to explore empirically three themes. First, to what extent has there been growth in flexible or non-standard forms of employment since 1979 in the UK, distinguishing carefully between part-time, temporary and self-employment? Second, to what extent are people working in non-standard forms of employment voluntarily and what can be said about the ‘quality’ of different forms of employment? Third, is non-standard employment more prevalent in the UK, with its relatively less regulated labour market, compared with other advanced industrial countries? Are there any links between the prevalence of non-standard employment and the degree of regulation of the labour market?