Globalized Labour Markets and Social Inequality in Europe

Working class economic insecurity and voting for radical right and radical left parties

“…An increasing number of Europeans are experiencing economic insecurity (Blossfeld et al, 2011;Chung and Van Oorschot, 2011). More are working in temporary employment (OECD, 2021) and more are solo self-employed (Van Stel and De Vries, 2015).…”

Associations between precarious employment trajectories and mental health among older workers in Germany: Vertical and horizontal inequalities

“…A recent qualitative study by Lain et al (39) indicated that especially older women reported a heightened perception of precarity due to the interaction of PE conditions, financial insecurities due to repeated absences from the labor market and a resulting lack of choice with regard to the timing of retirement (39). This may also apply to Germany, where women are more likely to be unable to amass sufficient financial resources to have adequate control over their working life due to highly gendered unpaid care duties (9,40,41) and the associated higher risk of discontinuous and PE patterns (42). The concomitant mental health consequences may be more evident in women approaching retirement.…”

“…So far, most high-quality studies on the association between PE and mental health have derived from Sweden (eg, 7, 8). Previously, authors have highlighted that the exposure to health-adverse employment conditions is unequally distributed along vertical (eg, education or occupation) and horizontal (eg, sex or migrant status) social positions (eg, [9][10][11]. The magnitude of these vertical and horizontal inequalities likely varies between countries, given that welfare states act as "institutional filters" with respect to exposure and susceptibility to PE -this may limit the transferability of existing findings to other countries (4,9,12,13).…”

“…Exposure to and experience of PE likely varies between different age groups given the insider-outsider logic of the German labor market. Those who are already employed and established in the labor market are called 'insiders' (often mid-career and older male workers), while labor market entrants and those with interrupted, non-continuous careers (more often women) may be regarded as 'outsiders' (9,18). Moreover, the consequences of PE might differ in dependence of the workers' proximity to retirement and their financial needs (19).…”