Dual Earners in Double Jeopardy: Preparing for Job Loss in the New Risk Economy

Abstract

Both declining job security and the need for dual careers constitute two complicating factors in the lives of middle-class American families. Rarely, however, are these two phenomena investigated simultaneously. Drawing on both survey and in-depth interview data of a sample of middle-class couples in upstate New York, we document the pervasiveness of couple-level job insecurity, and the extents at-risk couples anticipate job loss and employers prepare workers for job termination. We argue that the new middle-class job insecurity is effectively doubled for dual-earner couples, reshaping the temporalities of career development across the life course.

Citation

Sweet, S., Moen, P. and Meiksins, P. (2007), "Dual Earners in Double Jeopardy: Preparing for Job Loss in the New Risk Economy", Rubin, B.A. (Ed.) Workplace Temporalities (Research in the Sociology of Work, Vol. 17), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 439-463. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-2833(07)17014-X