The Precarious Helping Hand—a Systematic Review of Precarity Faced by Social Workers

Precarity was first used to describe marginal working-class groups but later expanded to skilled workers and issues of ontological insecurity. The social work profession, despite its human rights orientation, now faces similar risks due to low funding, high workloads, and unstable organizational environments. Yet the link between precarity and social work has received limited attention. This review identified 34 studies from five social science databases. Findings show that social workers experience 55 items of precarity, including job insecurity, value–practice gaps, limited skill development, and strained client relationships. Four groups face deeper precarity: workers in private settings, younger workers, placement students, and bilingual workers. Social work educators also experience precarity, which threatens the sector’s capacity to reproduce skills. Overall, precarization in social work remains understudied, and future research should use longitudinal design and expand to more diverse geographical contexts.