Contingent work rising: implications for the timing of marriage in Japan

Martin Piotrowski, University of Oklahoma
Arne Kalleberg, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Ronald R. Rindfuss, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and East-West Center

Employment for young adults has become increasingly precarious in most developed countries. Many jobs provide neither benefits nor security. Employers are hiring more part-time workers. They are also hiring workers through companies that send workers for specific and time-bound periods. And many low skill jobs are being outsourced to low wage countries. These changes have made companies more nimble, and are well-documented. Less attention has been paid to the effects of these trends on the family transitions of young adults. In this paper we ask whether the experience of non-regular work leads to the postponement of marriage, and whether this effect differs for men and women. Using life history data from Japan, we find strong, significant effects for men, but, as expected in the Japanese context, no effects for women.