precarity.

Insecurity or instability of livelihood or social position, especially involving uncertain work, income or access to support.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• employment precarity
• social precarity

On the page

Employment precarity made future income difficult to plan even while work remained available.

Social precarity was examined through housing and support as well as employment.

Usage notes

Primary category: economics / business / social science. Forms: Usually uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: social explanation, distributional analysis, population description, concept distinction. Disciplines: social science, economics, public policy. Commonness: uncommon.