More Attorneys Slipping Into The “Precariat”

A term coined several years ago to refer to an expanding working class with unstable (i.e. precarious) low-paying jobs is now widely applicable to what were once considered safe middle class and/or professional positions. “Buffeted by Silicon Valley-like calls to maximize disruption, the Middle Precariat may have positions ‘reimagined,'” writes researcher-author Alissa Quart in The Guardian. “That cruel euphemism means they are to be replaced by younger, cheaper workers, or even machines.” She hones in on a number of examples, with exhibit A being attorneys. Document review software has displaced one subset of lawyers, but she suggests it could go far deeper than that.