This paper examines the effects of globalization on job security using a number of
indicators from the Regional Programme on Enterprise Development (RPED) and
Tanzania Manufacturing Enterprise Survey (TMES) datasets. The paper fmds that job
insecurity is prevalent among workers in Tanzania's manufacturing sector over the
study period. The increase in job insecurity is related to increasing privatization of
parastatals which resulted in job losses, as well as the influx of foreign direct
investment that bought off most companies. The study shows that between 1992 and
1998, there was a reduction in the unionisation of the workforce during a time when
the tempo of structural adjustment reforms in the economy was high. Over the same
period, the study finds that firms were increasingly using more casual workers, owing
to fums engaging in cost-saving measures. The number of layoffs of workers was also
quite high at the beginning of the period, indicating significant adjustments in job
destruction as new owners bought some privatised fums. There were also a number of
resignations as well as workers absconding from their jobs.