Non‐standard Work in Canada and the United Kingdom

Non‐standard forms of work figure prominently in debates about the flexibility of the labour force. Non‐standard employment, in the form of part‐time jobs, own‐account self‐employment, temporary working and multiple job holding has been increasing in many industrialized countries. Contrasts its prevalence in 1989 in Canada and the UK,through a systematic secondary analysis of the Canadian General Social Survey and the UK Labour Force Survey. While the overall frequency of non‐standard work is the same in the two countries, notable cross‐national differences are observed when age, gender and industry are introduced, and when the different forms of non‐standard work are examined separately. Among the more noteworthy differences is the higher proportion of employed British women in non‐standard jobs.