Instability of Work and Care in the Service Sector: Findings from the Shift Study

The vast majority of service-sector workers report instability in their weekly work schedules. To learn about this instability and its consequences, the Shift Project has developed an innovative approach to collect survey data from workers employed in retail and food services. In this talk, I will give an overview of the Shift Project aims and methodology, and present findings on how parents' work schedules are related to children's care arrangements.

Kristen Harknett is an associate professor of sociology at the University of California, San Francisco. Her research interests include economic influences on marriage, cohabitation, and childbearing; the causes and consequences of lacking material and emotional support from friends and family; and the influence of sex ratio imbalances and other aspects of social context on romantic relationships and childbearing. She also has an expertise in program evaluation, and is currently leading the impact evaluation of a federally-funded fatherhood program. Harknett's current research, in collaboration with Daniel Schneider, is focused on unstable work schedules in the service sector and their consequences for the wellbeing of workers and their families.