The Development of New Forms of Work and Employment in the German Labour Market

Drivers – Dynamics – Outcomes

The primary objective of this literature-based study is to describe and analyse the empirical significance of new forms of work and employment that have a different work organization and/or different work structures from the standard employment relationship or more established forms of atypical employment (e.g. part-time work, fixed-term employment). The primary focus lies on employment relationships in which the boundary between employee and employer or dependent and self-employed activity becomes increasingly blurred and for which the question of (poverty-avoiding) social security via the classical social insurance system is even more questionable than is the case with the "established" atypical forms of employment (with the exception of marginal employment). An example are the increasing numbers of dependent (solo) self-employed persons, freelancers and contract workers, who are not formally employed by a particular employee but who are in a real relationship of dependence to a particular company or employer. The boundary between employer and employee also becomes blurred on so-called "crowdworking platforms". To date, it is largely unclear whether "crowdworkers" are employed on a dependent basis or not. Furthermore, there is uncertainty as to who the employer is – the platform that acts as an intermediary between the contracting company and the contractor, or the contracting company. Overall, we analyse the following research questions:

• What are the relevant drivers of change with regard to forms of employment, and what are their effects?
• Which findings on the quantitative significance and the persons in these employment relationships are available in literature?
• What new protective needs, power asymmetries and dependencies are identified and discussed in literature? For which problems can solutions already be found in literature?
• According to the relevant literature, what employment patterns are emerging for the future (new business models, management strategies, etc.)?