Exploring Precarity in the U.S. Labor Market: Across Salient Divisions

• In Event: Federalism and Labor Politics

Abstract

Prior research on labor market dualism has examined that workers with insecure, unstable, and uncertain employment (i.e., outsiders) are less likely to engage in politics and more likely to support right-wing populist parties compared to labor market insiders. However, little has been discussed about whether such findings can be applicable to the US contexts due to the unusual features embedded in the US institutional configurations and economic structures. Considering these gaps, this paper focuses on the concept of "precarity" and illuminates the discrepancies between labor market outsiders and insiders in terms of their welfare attitudes and political orientations. Moreover, this paper compares how employment and relevant status differently affect workers' attitudes across salient divisions in the US political landscapes - e.g., industrial sectors, race/ethnicity, and spatial/regional characteristics - by examining the conditional effects of them found in GSS datasets. This elementary study contributes to the burgeoning work in the American Political Economy field by linking contextual formations to attitudinal factors and provides implications with research on public welfare perceptions.

Author

• Heon Lee, University of Delaware