Changing Forms of Employment looks at major underlying trends which generate pressures towards a fundamental reshaping of social institutions: changes in the organisation of production, in economies characterised by increasing growth of service sector employment; the effects of technological change, particularly those associated with information technology; and the erosion of the 'male breadwinner' (or single earner) model of employment and household.

These trends have resulted in strains and ruptures in the organisation and regulation of employment and related institutions, including trade unions, employers, and households. The task of the next decade is both to reconstruct relationships, and to renew institutions.