Employment Precarity, COVID-19 Risk, and Workers' Well-Being During the Pandemic in Europe

Abstract

The COVID-19 crisis highlights a growing precarity in employment and the importance of employment for workers' well-being. Existing studies primarily examine the consequences of employment precarity through non-standard employment arrangements or the perception of job insecurity as a one-dimensional measure. Recent scholars advocate a multidimensional construct with a wide range of objective and subjective characteristics of precariousness. Using data from Eurofound's Living, Working, and COVID-19 surveys, I define employment precarity as the objective form of employment instability, as well as subjective terms of job insecurity and emotional precariousness. I also investigate whether and how various facets of employment precarity along with COVID-19 risk are associated with workers' mental and subjective well-being across 27 European Union member states during the pandemic. This study sheds light on a comprehensive understanding of objective and subjective dimensions of employment precarity, as well as their effects on workers' well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Measuring the unmeasurable: defining and rating precarity with the aid of EU-LFS data

“…It is also important to mention that analysing data from 2018 can be used for baseline comparisons to help us understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on precarity and how the pandemic has exacerbated the phenomenon. Relevant studies show that the COVID-19 crisis highlighted a growing precarity in employment and had significant effects on workers’ well-being (Donato et al 2022 ; Pun et al 2022 ; Wu 2022 amongst others). As far as future directions are concerned further work would include the application of this methodology to other EU member datasets to produce cross-national comparisons and the EU-LFS dataset for Greece for the subsequent years.…”

Lessons on the COVID-19 pandemic: who are the most affected

“…For example, working parents have been particularly vulnerable as they have had to balance the daily changes in demands of their jobs with the responsibilities of caring for their children (Calderwood et al, 2022). Wu (2022) Another critical factor thought to be changing the pandemic's impacts on stress levels is the industry.…”

Precarious Employment and Well-Being: Insights from the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…In Part II, five articles center on the experiences and perception of employment precarity during the pandemic. Three quantitative studies show stressful dark sides of precarity during the pandemic ( Brown and Ciciurkaite Forthcoming , Grace Forthcoming , Wu Forthcoming ) whereas two mixed-method papers suggest possible temporary bright sides( Ravenelle and Kowalski Forthcoming , Schieman et al Forthcoming ). As for the harmful dark sides , some populations bear multiple sources of stress and their high stress levels are further exacerbated by the pandemic.…”