Precariat

Guy Standing analyzed the precariat as a direct product of neoliberal labor-market flexibilization. As states pursued maximum competitiveness by deregulating labor markets, risk and insecurity were shifted onto workers, producing a new class stripped of the three pillars of 20th-century working-class life: employment security, skill, and identity. Standing identifies seven forms of labor security from which the precariat is deprived: labor-market security, employment security, job security, work security, skill-reproduction security, income security, and representation security. The 2013 BBC Great British Class Survey reclassified Britain's class structure into seven tiers, placing the precariat at the bottom. In Japan the group is called freeters (フリーター) and numbers over two million. In South Korea, as of 2025, approximately 17.26 million people, combining 8.57 million irregular workers and 8.69 million non-wage workers (dependent contractors, platform workers, freelancers), live under precariat conditions, roughly 60% of the employed population.