The precarious is a modern term conceptualized by the economist Guy Standing in 2011, when the global economic crisis had consolidated and sharpened in the so-called First World or developed economies such as Spain, France or even Germany, the economic engine of Europe.

In a way, the precariat stands as a new emerging class, a new mass phenomenon that requires, according to experts, urgent attention in order to solve potential crises for the coming decades. It is no longer just a question of the economic needs of individual people, but the complexity will come from not being able to guarantee a minimum of social welfare .

What exactly does precariousness consist of?

Textually, the precarious is a hybrid between the concepts of precarity and the proletariat , given that it is a working class of middle or low class, whose economic aspirations are not matched by their success in finding work, and lives in the instability that the labor market currently generates.

Precarious for the following reasons: this new class is facing unprecedented job insecurity , labour market volatility and an undefined and classified identity as a working class.

Causes that have given rise to the phenomenon

Some expert economists and political analysts such as the aforementioned guy Standing, father of the definition, the renowned doctor in economics Santiago Niño Becerra or professor José María Gay de Liébana among others, point directly to the capitalist system in general and to the Globalization system in particular .

In a certain sense, the precariousness of the workers is even lower than that of the poor who work long hours and there is a mismatch between the workforce and wages, since in some cases they are not paid what is stipulated by law, as is the case with scholarship holders or those workers who need to do moonlighting and who cannot even reach a minimum to pay for their lives.

Globalization has made this new social class spread all over the world, due to its asymmetric economic policies, its extremely difficult working conditions in some cases and its policy of free movement of people ; migration is another mechanism of perpetuation of precariousness.

The 3 types of precariousness

Within this worrying phenomenon, there are different types of classification according to the nature of the precariousness . They are the following.

1. Young immigrants

This group responds to that generation of young people who have had to emigrate from their countries of origin due to a lack of social guarantees such as public health, education and, of course, a lack of job offers. The problem is that the destination country has the same complexity.

2. Young people with university degrees

In this case the situation is even more serious. Here the most educated generations in history have an education and knowledge that exceeds or exceeds the needs of the labour market. That is, they become so excellent in their skills that they are excluded from the professional offer . In this context, their reaction to the labour panorama may be one of great frustration or, at the other extreme, a feeling of resignation that Bertrand Regader defined as the ‘syndrome of the satisfied slave’.

3. The seniors

It’s probably the most urgent case to attend to. Seniors are those elderly individuals, between 40 and 55 years old, who have been left out of the labour market because they do not meet the requirements demanded by the modern economy (technologies, travel).

What do these groups have in common?

As we have already pointed out, the precarious are a socio-economic group characterized by distinctive features: job instability (they do not manage to have fixed contracts), remuneration for their work lacks social guarantees (they are paid below the legal minimum in most cases) and they are also deprived of some civil privileges such as paid holidays or days off which the rest of society does enjoy.

Unlike the typical working class of the time of the industrial revolution, the precarious have even less security of finding work, and the areas in which they can get to work are so unstable that in a matter of a few years their skills may be insufficient for the job they have been occupying.

Universal income as a possible and only solution

In various meetings of economic circles, world development forums and other events of a socio-political nature, and all national governments admit to not knowing how to face the next challenge of the 21st century. The world population is increasing, human strength is becoming expendable and resources are becoming scarce .

And it is here that politicians find an often insurmountable wall when it comes to tackling the problem, and that is to convince financial and business entities of the need to make a change of model in the production systems.

Globalization is a response to capitalism, which at the same time is nourished by a neoliberal ideology that promotes fierce competition at the national level, both in the strictly professional and personal spheres. This results in a decrease in salaries , a longer working day and a constant transformation of the labour market, which implies constant updating (and which is not always possible) by the worker.

In this sense, Standing, the author of the book The precarious, a new social class , visualizes a violent and dark future for this phenomenon, appealing to only one solution: the universal basic income as a new fundamental right that can guarantee a minimum monetary income for those individuals who identify themselves within this socio-economic group.