Employment Management Work: A Case Study and Theoretical Framework

Abstract

Managing employment and labor market experiences is a critical activity for virtually all adults but it is undertheorized in the sociology of work. In this article, we argue for the concept of employment management work, referring to the generic, lifelong process in which everyone in a capitalist market economy engages to some degree. To grasp the significance of employment management work, we draw on and synthesize multiple streams of literature and then analyze a set of in-depth interviews from a study of low-wage workers in an effort to bridge these literatures and to highlight salient features of a theory of employment management work.