Liquid labour is an idea that describes the impact of internet enabled technology on working lives, and how new ways of using our time and attention evolve from the development of technology. The concept of liquid labour captures the idea that the nature of working life has changed because of the role of technology in allowing work to occur in many different settings outside of the traditional office or factory. However, the concept also captures the structural change where large parts of the labour market now involve unpredictable, casual and precarious work, as a result of the technological shifts in the last 20 years.
The change in the nature of work since the 1980s, has meant that workers no longer expect to work for the same employer for their whole career and instead expect to move through a number of different jobs.This flexibility and mobility gave rise to the idea of a liquid workforce, who could move between jobs, adapting flexibly to the changing nature of the labour market. But technological change is now even challenging the concept of what it means to have a ‘job’ or work for an employer. New employment models are constantly emerging, such as the explosion of gig economy arrangements with workers acting as freelance contractors, rather than employees.
Meanwhile, this same technology is challenging the idea of a workplace. For those with traditional jobs the line between work and home is being blurred, and for those in new employment models, the idea of a workplace or an employer is even harder to pin down. Alongside these changes the nature of the economies in most western countries has also shifted away from manufacturing, towards a knowledge economy. Traditional manufacturing has moved to developing countries, and the workforce in developed countries has moved to service industry or other ‘immaterial labour’ roles. This change means that the output of the workforce is not things (like cars and washing machines) but instead it produces ‘services’ such as financial, transport, hospitality, entertainment and media. These are some of the areas where the boundaries between work and home have merged but they are often also the industries where new employment types mean there often isn’t a ‘work’ place, instead there is a place where work is done, often at home or sometimes in a car!
In his paper on the topic, Mark Deuze refers to this as liquid life, and says “ Life today has become analogous with work – and it increasingly displays all the contemporary characteristics of work in what has been described as the ‘new capitalism’: permanent flux, constant change, and structural indeterminacy. Zygmunt Bauman thus argues how we are all living a ‘liquid’ life, which is “a precarious life, lived under conditions of constant uncertainty.” In liquid life, the modern categories of production (work) and consumption (life) have converged” (Deuze, 2006).
One of the impacts of liquid labour (or liquid life) is the extent to which the technology we use is common across personal and working lives, and the way this further blurs the distinction between the two. A really good recent example of this is where Whatsapp is now being used by teams in some workplaces to start group chats. This is step change because the traditional work applications like email, spreadsheets or Microsoft Teams have been identifiably made for the work space, while other applications, eg facebook, Instagram or Whatsapp have occupied the personal space. But these lines are being crossed, which means that keeping connected in your personal sphere is blending more with the professional sphere.
The really important impact of the liquid labour, however, is it's impact on the nature and strucuture of employment. The increase in workers participating in the gig economy has grown significantly over the past couple years. This was especially the case during the pandemic as there was an increased reliance on home-delivery services like UberEats. These services pushed many workers that would usually be in traditional 9-5 jobs to pursue gig work as an additional income.
Some estimate show that the percentage of gig workers in the US increased from 14 and 20 percent in 2014, to around 35% in 2020. These figures are expected to grow, some predicting freelance workers will make up more than half the workforce by 2023.
One of the benefits of the gig economy is the flexibility, in regards to working hours and the types of jobs that workers can take on. Before the pandemic up to 70 percent of gig workers reported they participated in the gig economy out of choice since it provided more flexibility, and sometimes more income, than a full-time job. While this flexibility has always been appealing, since the start of covid-19, it is likely that many full-time employees have had to reluctantly join the gig economy out of necessity.
And as the proportion of the workforce reliant on the gig economy grows, the concerns about the precarious nature of the work, also increases. It is one thing for people to enjoy the flexibility of gig work, when there are plentiful options for more stable employment when flexibility is no longer the priority. But as more and more work moves away from traditional labour models, towards more fluid and less tangible employment, the greater the risk that 'flexibility' becomes a euphemism for exploitation and declining wages. More importantly the potential impacts to health and well being for a broader cross section of the work force begin to increase. Some are straight line impacts, like the loss of health insurance, or sick leave, while other impacts such as mental health issues due to the stress of uncertain incomes, or the loss of personal connections at work, may take longer to become evident.
These are the really important issues that commentators on "Liquid Labour" are concerned about and these are the issues that governments and policy makers need to focus on, when considering peoples place in the work force in the very near future.
Bibliography
Deuze, M. (2006). Liquid Life, Convergence Culture, and Media Work. Indiana: Mark Deuze. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/handle/2022/3343
Henderson, R. (2020, December 10). How COVID-19 Has Transformed The Gig Economy. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/rebeccahenderson/2020/12/10/how-covid-19-has-transformed-the-gig-economy/?sh=6382314e6c99
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