Paper short abstract:

I discuss the consequences of the radical switch towards an individual-centered understanding of work and employment. Using the case of highly skilled workers in Romania, I show how even for the most privileged categories of workers, the framework of employability results in precarious livelihoods.

Paper long abstract:

The workforce around the world has been subjected to undeniable crises in the last years, visible in the high levels of unemployment and in the protests that have been mushrooming globally. This paper is intended as a contribution to the recent discussions about the consequences of the radical switch towards an individual-centered understanding of work and employment. I will use the case of highly skilled workers in a middle scale city in Romania, Cluj, in order to empirically describe the types of situations, choices and understandings that a labor market operating under the wider umbrella of employability result in. I will show that even for the most privileged categories of workers, those who manage to secure a relatively decent living for themselves, the framework of employability results in precarious situations. I empirically document the ways in which people with a relatively good livelihood are not in the position to make claims of security to anyone than themselves or their networks of support, because both the employers, the state and other regulatory political entities are absolved from this responsibility, making them vulnerable on the one hand to the particular situation of the employers, and, on the other hand, to the degree to which the locality in which they live (or the localities to which they can move) are successful in attracting and keeping as a fix the global fluxes of capital. Fluxes which are free to move, and to whose freedom national and global regulations contribute increasingly.