a growing 'precariat', consisting of millions of people facing unstable, insecure labour, a lack of occupational identity, declining and increasingly volatile real wages, loss of benefits and chronic indebtedness

The growth of the "precariat", in this view, has undermined workers’ power at the point of production.

Now often referred to as 'the precariat' (to emphasise the floating and unstable character of their employment and lifestyles) these workers have always accounted for a large segment of the total labour force.