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Dans un certain nombre de pays européens, les situations de cumul d’emplois ont clairement tendance à se multiplier. Mais à l’heure actuelle, on sait peu de choses sur la structure et les conséquences potentielles de ce phénomène, notamment en termes de qualité du travail et de protection sociale. Ce numéro spécial est consacré aux formes contemporaines du cumul d’emplois en Europe. La structure, la nature et la dynamique de ces cumuls d’emplois ont-elles évolué au fil du temps? Quels rôles la flexibilité du marché du travail, les changements technologiques et la fragmentation du travail jouent-ils dans la multiplication des cumuls d’emplois? Et les travailleurs cumulant plusieurs emplois bénéficient-ils de conditions d’emploi et de protections adéquates et similaires à celles des autres travailleurs, ou sont-ils moins bien lotis du fait de leur situation d’emploi (fragmentée)? Quelles sont les implications de ces constats pour les syndicats, les décideurs politiques et au niveau de la réglementation du travail? Les différents articles de ce numéro spécial viennent enrichir la littérature sur les formes d’emploi émergentes à l’ère numérique et les défis à relever en matière de protection sociale, notamment à la lumière de la pandémie de COVID-19. La présente introduction propose de lancer les principaux débats sur la question du cumul d’emplois et elle présente un aperçu des articles réunis dans ce numéro.

In einer Reihe europäischer Länder ist der eindeutige Trend zu beobachten, dass immer mehr Arbeitnehmer:innen einer Mehrfachbeschäftigung nachgehen. Zum gegenwärtigen Zeitpunkt ist allerdings wenig über die Struktur und die potenziellen Konsequenzen dieser Entwicklung besonders im Hinblick auf die Qualität der Beschäftigung und die soziale Absicherung der Betroffenen bekannt. Diese Ausgabe von Transfer befasst sich mit modernen Formen multipler Arbeitsverhältnisse in Europa. Haben sich Struktur, Natur und Dynamik der Mehrfachbeschäftigung im Laufe der Zeit verändert? Welche Rollen spielen ein flexibler Arbeitsmarkt, der technologische Wandel und die Fragmentierung der Arbeit bei der Entwicklung multipler Arbeitsverhältnisse? Profitieren Mehrfachbeschäftigte von vergleichbaren und adäquaten Beschäftigungsbedingungen, Arbeitsbedingungen und sozialer Absicherung im Vergleich zu Beschäftigten mit nur einem Job, oder sind sie infolge ihrer (fragmentierten) Beschäftigungssituation schlechter gestellt? Welche Konsequenzen ergeben sich daraus für Gewerkschaften, politische Entscheidungsträger und die Regulierung der Arbeit? Die Beiträge dieser Themenausgabe von Transfer ergänzen die vorhandene Fachliteratur über neue Beschäftigungsformen im digitalen Zeitalter und über die damit verbundenen Herausforderungen für den Sozialschutz auch vor dem Hintergrund der Covid-19-Pandemie. Diese Einführung soll die wichtigsten Auseinandersetzungen zum Thema Mehrfachbeschäftigung skizzieren und präsentiert eine Zusammenfassung der Artikel dieser Ausgabe.

In a number of European countries there is a clear trend towards increased multiple jobholding. As things stand, however, little is known about the structure and the potential consequences of this increase, notably in terms of quality of work and social protection. This special issue focuses on contemporary forms of multiple jobholding in Europe. Have the structure, nature and dynamics of multiple jobholding changed over time? What are the roles of labour market flexibility, technological change and work fragmentation in the development of multiple jobholding? And do multiple jobholders benefit from similar and adequate employment terms, conditions and protections compared with single jobholders, or are they worse off as a consequence of their (fragmented) employment situation? What implications do these findings have for unions, policy-makers and the regulation of work? The collection of articles in this special issue adds to the literature on emerging forms of employment in the digital age and challenges for social protection, also in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. This introduction initiates a discussion of central debates on multiple jobholding and presents a synopsis of the articles in this issue.

The scope and structure of multiple jobholding and its consequences for multiple jobholders are changing in many Western economies. Only limited quantitative empirical knowledge is currently available on the changing features of multiple jobholding and whether the economic vulnerability of multiple jobholders has been changing over time. In this article we focus on the position and trends of multiple jobholders compared with single jobholders in Europe. We study this in terms of working hours, workers’ desire to work more hours, and in-work poverty. To that end, we analyse data since the early 2000s from the EU Labour Force Survey and from the EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions. Our findings show that multiple jobholding is a significant and increasing labour market phenomenon in many advanced economies, with changing characteristics, for example in terms of gender distribution and combinations of contracts. In-work poverty is relatively high among non-standard workers, but the findings do not indicate a deteriorating trend effect. In-work poverty seems to be on the rise among people who are single, for both single jobholders and multiple jobholders.

This article contributes to research on the embeddedness of multiple work arrangements in the employment biography. We investigate transition and duration effects of multiple jobholding on financial and non-financial job outcomes, and the role of flexible work arrangements and household contexts. To that end, we examine panel data from Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands for the period between 2002 and 2017. The findings underscore the importance of economic factors in the decision to work multiple jobs and reveal that labour market contexts play a significant role in outcomes. Findings furthermore indicate negative well-being effects for those who have both multiple jobs and children. For a substantial share of workers, holding multiple jobs occurs in relatively short-term episodes, posing the question of whether episodes of multiple jobholding necessarily come with either clear enrichment or depletion effects, or are merely a phase in the overall employment biography.

In this article we compare solo self-employment in Germany and the Netherlands. We identify parallels and differences in the structure of solo self-employment and examine to what extent self-employment is related to a precarious situation in terms of earnings and social security. The results show that solo self-employed workers are relatively vulnerable in terms of income and disability insurance in both countries. As compared to the Netherlands, German solo self-employed workers seem to have a higher risk of precariousness, particularly in terms of income and poverty in old age. The article concludes with recommendations for action that follow from the findings.

When it comes to financial preparation for retirement, self-employed workers in many European countries face unique challenges not encountered by traditional wage earners. This is particularly true for self-employed workers because many self-employed individuals do not have large-scale access to employer-sponsored pensions, which are a mainstay of pension support for most workers in developed countries. In this investigation, we explored the saving practices and perceived future pension adequacy of self-employed workers aged 15–65 in Germany (N= 702) and the Netherlands (N= 655). Of particular interest for understanding saving practices was whether respondents felt that they voluntarily chose to become self-employed, or whether they felt “forced” to enter self-employment due to economic or labor market pressures. Forced self-employed individuals—some 25% of those who became self-employed out of necessity—were found to be less likely to save for retirement than their voluntary self-employed counterparts, and they envisioned a less optimistic future pension scenario for themselves. Discussion focuses on the need to change institutional practices and public policies that place self-employed individuals at a disadvantage—particularly those who are driven into self-employment based on economic pressures and a lack of opportunities in the traditional labor market.