Transitions into Precarity at Work Among Older Men in the Metal Industry in Portugal and Sweden

Transitions into precariousness and labour market exclusion in late professional career need to be understood from the perspective of individual biographies unfolding in relation to historical developments, social structures and social changes. The generation born in the 1950’s in Europe, now nearing retirement, has lived through periods of economic affluence and welfare state expansion, but also of macro-economic shocks, deindustrialization, and neo-liberal slimming of public social structures. These changes were concurrent with accelerated digitalization and restructuring of work organizations. This chapter illustrates transitions into unemployment and precariousness among older men in the context of economic downturn and organizational restructuring in a sector particularly exposed to the effects of neo-liberal globalization- the metal industry. We go on to show how in two different organizational-institutional realities countries, such as Portugal and Sweden these workers are exposed to different mechanisms that paved the way out of secure employment into insecure employment and precarious positions in the labour market.