Young and old at risk - Comparative trends in "non-standard" patterns of employment in Canada and the United Kingdom

For many years, the majority of workers in the industrialised West have sha red a similar employment life-course - one based on full-time permanent wor k However over the last decade the number of such opportunities have starte d to decline and many move workers are participating in "non-standard" form s of employment Using data from the UK'S Labour Force Survey and the Canadi an General Social Survey, this paper traces the trends in "non-standard" em ployment over the 1989 to 1994 period. The findings illustrate that, althou gh the majority of workers are still in full-time permanent jobs an increas ing proportion are engaged in "non-standard" employment The paper suggests that certain groups ave more likely to be involved in "non-standard" employ ment than others, and that increasingly these tend to be made up of workers at one end or other of the working age spectrum.