Disability and Precarious Work Over the Life Course: An Application of Key Concepts

Abstract

This study examined changes in work precarity (i.e., job insecurity and income insecurity) and involuntary job loss following the start of the Great Recession in 2007 among people with and without disabilities. Using five waves of nationally representative data from the Americans' Changing Lives (ACL) panel study, the findings demonstrated that people with disabilities who had early experiences of income insecurity were more likely to experience later income insecurity than people without disabilities. Those who had a functional disability and experienced job insecurity and income insecurity at W1, in 1986, were also significantly more likely to experience involuntary job loss following the start of the Great Recession. These findings highlight the disproportionate impact of early work precarity for people with disabilities and are discussed as an application of the life-course concept of cumulative disadvantage.

Citation

Brown, R.L. (2023), "Disability and Precarious Work Over the Life Course: An Application of Key Concepts", Dillaway, H.E., Shandra, C.L. and Bender, A.A. (Ed.) Disabilities and the Life Course (Research in Social Science and Disability, Vol. 14), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 167-181. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-354720230000014010