Precariat, the term which pertains to the fast-growing population of part-time workers without any job security and with limited career prospects, may have become a common word in the academia, but mainstream media tend to completely ignore this phenomenon. Job security, which was widely available to anyone in the 1970s and 1980s is now rather a privilege of those with the best and most expensive education, good connections and luck. Technological advancement closes more jobs than the new ones can be generated through GDP growth, and most countries with high GDP growth can't afford that either due to their high population growth and a lot of young adults appearing on the labor market.
In the highly developed countries - members of the OECD, the abundant economy got highly influenced by tech innovation, and the number of precarious workers is on an even sharper rise, despite many such nations have stagnant or negative population change. So, despite the number of those who retire is greater than the number of youngsters finishing education, it still doesn't mean there is a surplus jobs. In many cases, retirement of the incumbent triggers closure of the position, and most countries face precariat issues.
Relations Between Technology and Labor
Technological advancement has been often cited as a reason for losing jobs. Back in the 19th century, the Luddites in England broke machines that replaced the need for their labor. But later, this and similar movements diminished, since, with some training, they were able to find new jobs on another positions or in another industry. It was because the capital surplus from technological revolution was reinvested, which sparked the creation of new jobs. During that time, through the end of the 20th century, technology and labor went hand-in-hand and workers benefited a lot.
However, in the last 30 years, this is not the case. The capital accumulation got inclined toward inequality. The rich got richer, and the poor, including most of the labor force, stagnated. To retain the momentum of generating wealth, the rich and corporate management started keeping all of the surplus value added through technology for themselves instead of sharing it with workers and reinvesting. This broadened the gap between the poor and the rich. The result is growing unemployment and precariat - people who are neither unemployed nor effectively employed.
Blockchain - A technology allied with the labor force
The invention of blockchain in 2008 was almost unnoticed. At that time, the world was in a peaking economic growth and everyone hoped the growing unemployment and precariat issues will be suppressed. But one year later, a giant economic turmoil hit the labor force worldwide severely, causing millions of layoffs. Ten years later, the world has not yet recovered from that.
But in the last few years, we saw an increased use of blockchain. Various new blockchains emerged using different models and mechanisms to keep them afloat and secure growth of their value. The oldest and largest one - Bitcoin, saw a period of exponential growth in late 2016 through the end of 2017, growing in value more than 20 times during the period. The Bitcoin blockchain works as a provider of digital trust, we use Bitcoin payments securing the trust for facilitating transactions. Rising demand for Bitcoin means rising demand for its trustworthiness. And that trustworthiness grew in price just because elsewhere trust was harder to attain. The example is the banks that can go bankrupt and obliterate any savings deposed in them.
Post-Bitcoin blockchains can provide much more than just trust. There are now ledgers for storing records of work done, savings, and other assets. Steem, for example, applies a democratic system in which work is distributed through weighted voting for the quality of work done. There are still weaknesses of Steem and power abuse issues, which became prevalent with the sharp growth of SBD value, but this is one of the first platforms that enables distribution of work rewards via a bloickchain. Future blockchains can be more even, including Steem itself, once the drawbacks are addressed and corrected.
Blockchain Applications on the Labor Market
Worsening conditions in the corporate environment, and uncontrolled greed for more profit, hit the workforce by various means: working conditions are worse than before, job cuts are frequent, the prices rise. The inflation rate grew. It all creates a heavy social burden, so the state imposed more and higher taxes to serve the need of the growing economically challenged population.
Decentralized blockchains set the participants free of middlemen and overheads that increase regulation and cost, lower the speeds and set rules in their favor. We can store work records and pay the workforce in tokens. The value of tokens to other cryptos would be defined by the supply and demand of that specific type of work.
Furthermore, the precariat, which lacks working contracts that secure their jobs, can have their working records stored in blockchains that secure their positions. The smart contract technology first launched with Ethereum allows two parties to exchange work and assets on their own without intermediaries. Since rules are set and are known to everyone, there is no need for intermediary or mediation. The contract outcome is always clear and in line with what was known to the parties before pursuing the contract.