In this article, the changes that have marked our societies after the crisis and restructuring of capitalism since the last decades of the 20th century are seen as having had great impact over labor relations, disarraying the relations that have shaped the Welfare State and reordering them under market regulation. Considering the central role assigned to work in our societies, it becomes relevant to discuss different interpretations of emergent phenomena in the world of labor - from approaches that point to "the end of work" to those that argue its sustained centrality - reflecting over their social implications. It is underlined that the speedy process of current technological diffusion has been making labor relations precarious, broadening insecurities and vulnerabilities, and becoming a crucial source of social inequality. The article is closed with reflections over the development of the world of labor, postulating a critical view regarding extreme positions about the subject and underlining the unfavorable repercussions entailed by the changes under way, in order to advert to undesired social outcomes.
"precarization" of labor; labor relations; centrality of labor; world of labor