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This paper examines the post-redundancy labour-market experience of forty redundant steel workers. The data presented suggest that poor conditions of employment, associated with a relative increase in the use of contractors by large scale enterprise has encouraged an increase in informal means of recruitment, minimizing cost to the employer and maximizing co-operation from the workforce. The effects of special provisions for redundants are discussed with reference to: (a) the restructuring of employment opportunities following from the increased use of contractors. (b) informal economic activity. Three contrasting patterns of social activity are identified and evidence presented to indicate that these different patterns will channel people towards different kinds of employment. The suggestion is that where there is high competition for employment then an individual's labour market experience will be conditioned by patterns of social contact as much as by any conscious strategy of job search.