Write an essay on ‘work’. Focus on both the range of occupations, which exist and how they change.

Work means paid employment. In terms of sociology work can be defined as carrying out such tasks which require mental and physical effort with an objective to produce goods and services to satisfy the human needs.

There are two types of occupations formal and informal.

Informal occupations are found in unorganised sector and formal employment is found in organised sector of society. Under informal employment the workers are not regularly paid and the payment is not always made in terms of money sometimes they also receive goods and services for their work.

The informal employment is generally related with physical work. Informal employment includes both physical and mental nature of work and workers are paid on regular basis in terms of money called salary.

In traditional societies, before the introduction of industrialisation, the informal employment was most commonly found in the society but after industrialisation and with the advancement of technology the formal employment is commonly found.

After industrialisation there was a big change in work being done in the society like from informal employment society moved to formal employment, manual works were replaced by machineries and the principle of division of labour was very much present to get the things done in time and in an effective manner.