Interesting use of the word "develop" in the question posed, as it seems the precariat as described by Guy Standing in an article about the precariat (found at: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/11/precariat-global-class-rise-of-populism/ ) involves deterioration of the social contract and loss of control of the over-qualified and under-utilized workers' lives, sort of like the ronin in Samurai culture who roam about looking for someone to serve. Of course the pandemic in the USA is expanding that group or as Standing maintains, that class. Some experts do not see a rapid recovery or improvement even when (or if) the pandemic subsides. Hard to say.

The precariat has grown greatly during the pandemic and will continue to grow, don't you think?

Dear Margaret Katherine Grimes, I think, the precariat will continue to grow.

I agree, the percentage of the precariat "employment" will be steadily growing during the pandemics, in some sectors more than in the others. The instability of the economy due to the pandemics will inevitably boost the unemployment and the precariat.

I'm reading about a "K"-shaped economic recovery from the pandemic: the wealthy will come out ahead, but the financially challenged will be in much worse shape than they were before the pandemic.

Dear Margaret Katherine Grimes, the number of people who decide and influence the finances of the world may close to 12. The number of poor people will surely increase.

Yes, indeed, and thank you for introducing me to this terminology. I admit I was not familiar with it previously. Arguably, unless there are some seismic changes for the good of mankind - it could get progressively more difficult for the precariat, unfortunately. Let us hope this will not be the case, though.

I think history shows that when too much of the proletariat declines into the precariat, then the instability comes back to bite the shrinking oligarchy. It is rather like inbreeding: as the means of production are compressed into a sort of black hole, the oligarchy ultimately implodes because there is no market for its production and no willing wage-slaves to sustain their leisure-class operations. I realize this is a chaotic and often destructive process victimizing the precariat even more, but when the society eventually from the ruins perhaps more stability will return. So this does not mean I have any scholarship or special knowledge to back this up beyond discernment of a pattern of volatility derived from sustained injustice and class divisions. It can evolve for better or worse, as many revolutions have shown. And the question becomes better for whom? worse for whom? so am I an optimist, pessimist, realist -- or all three? In the panorama of time I suspect I am all three. Now I am going to do a Buddhist meditation. :)

In my opinion, the scale of the precariat development depends to a lesser extent on the direct impact of the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) coronavirus pandemic on economic processes, financial markets and the entire economy. On the other hand, the development of the precariat during a pandemic and after the end of the pandemic depends to a much greater extent on the possible indirect impact of the pandemic on the economy, i.e. on the scale and forms of state interventionism, anti-crisis and pro-development programs for reducing the scale of unemployment, reducing the economic downturn, activating entrepreneurship, the effectiveness of the applied social policy instruments. - economic, including budgetary, fiscal, sectoral, social and also monetary policies, the level of fiscalism and complexity, the formalization of legislation relating to employment issues, which also affects the level of flexibility of labor markets in terms of adapting to the changing conditions of the economic environment.

Best regards,

Dariusz Prokopowicz