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New work and the family life course in the Netherlands (NeWFam-NL)

10 July 2024

Over the last 50 years, macro-economic changes have resulted in the emergence and proliferation of new working conditions. This ‘New Work’ is characterized by an increase in the share of workers with temporary contracts, self-employment with no personnel (ZZP’er), part-time work and non-standard work hours, remote working, and complex work histories. The consequences of New Work for the family life chances of young adults have largely been overlooked and understudied. This project explores the relationship between experiences of New Work and subsequent union formation, childbearing, and union dissolution. Combining detailed data on working conditions from the Dutch Labor Force Survey (Enquête beroepsbevolking, EBB) and administrative register data, I will identify New Workers and follow them prospectively, observing their family-life-course dynamics. I will unravel the complex relationship between New Work and family life chances, exploring critical ages when exposure to New Work may be helpful or harmful for family building and stability. With survey and administrative data since 1996, I will identify stability and change in the consequences of New Work, from a time when it was marginal until today, when it is increasingly commonplace. Documenting and extrapolating from trends in the family outcomes of New Workers will provide insights into what the future might hold, also for those experiencing New Work for the first time as a result of the current Covid-19 crisis.