The labour contract is found where neither asset specificity nor monitoring problems occur.In this case, even if the work tasks require skills, these will be general and readily available inthe labour market. Monitoring problems are largely absent because what the employee doesin the service of the employer and what he or she actually produces is readily observable.There is then no need for the kinds of incentives established in the service relationship, and,according to Goldthorpe, the two defining characteristics of the labour contract are paymentfor discrete amounts of work and the absence of any attempts to secure a long-termrelationship between the parties.