in particular a large literature documents the existence of a deep divide within the formal sector between jobs offering permanent contracts and those offering fixedterm contracts the distinction is especially relevant from a job quality perspective since fixedterm jobs tend to be on average second best jobs characterised by lower earnings quality higher labour market risk due to both higher risk of joblessness and to lower unemployment benefit coverage and lower quality of the working environment oecd chapter furthermore these forms of fixedterm employment are quite widespread in emerging economies notably in latin american countries and china