During the mid-1990s interest in workplace change turned to concern and even anxiety over signs that customary employment relationships were breaking down. One company after another downsized or reengineered costs, pressuring others to do the same to stay competitive. Secure jobs and predictable career paths were seen as relics of bureaucratic corporations too big and too rigid to meet challenges of a fast-moving economy. But in fact, employment stability is a relatively recent phenomenon, while the trend toward more subcontracting, contingent work, decentralized decision making, and increased worker autonomy is reminiscent of labor market conditions in the nineteenth century. The reappearance of less permanent forms of work indicates a weakening of the internal labor markets that emerged in the early twentieth century.
