The Socioeconomic Situation of Long-Term Flexitime Employees

The flexible workforce is growing. Employees in temporary and flexitime jobs now tend to remain there longer and have become less likely to move on to permanent jobs. As a result, the proportion of employees remaining in the flexible workforce for long periods – more than three years – is also increasing. For most of these employees this is not a problem in socioeconomic terms: their household incomes are barely lower than those of permanent employees, and flexitime employees and their employers invest at least as much in post-initial training.

The study used Statistics Netherlands’ Social Statistics Database, which contains registered data on jobs, income from employment, social security benefits and self-employment. The information relates to all jobs in the Netherlands from 2006 to 2010, including jobs that began before 2006. It is linked to information on self-employment, other employment (e.g. freelancers without employment contracts) and benefit periods in the 2006-2010 period.