Job insecurity and health: A study of 16 European countries

Abstract

Although the number of insecure jobs has increased considerably over the recent decades, relatively little is known about the health consequences of job insecurity, their international pattern, and factors that may modify them. In this paper, we investigated the association between job insecurity and self-rated health, and whether the relationship differs by country or individual-level characteristics. Cross-sectional data from 3 population-based studies on job insecurity, self-rated health, demographic, socioeconomic, work-related and behavioural factors and lifetime chronic diseases in 23,245 working subjects aged 45–70 years from 16 European countries were analysed using logistic regression and meta-analysis. In fully adjusted models, job insecurity was significantly associated with an increased risk of poor health in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, the Netherlands, Poland and Russia, with odds ratios ranging between 1.3 and 2.0. Similar, but not significant, associations were observed in Austria, France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland. We found no effect of job insecurity in Belgium and Sweden. In the pooled data, the odds ratio of poor health by job insecurity was 1.39. The association between job insecurity and health did not differ significantly by age, sex, education, and marital status. Persons with insecure jobs were at an increased risk of poor health in most of the countries included in the analysis. Given these results and trends towards increasing frequency of insecure jobs, attention needs to be paid to the public health consequences of job insecurity.

The role of rewards and demands in burnout among surgical nurses

“…Organizations change rapidly and employees need to learn new skills and gain new knowledge in order to keep their jobs [43]. A study encompassing 16 European countries showed that job insecurity is connected with poor health, regardless of age, sex, education or economic status [44]. Polish and Slovakian nurses reported concern about their IJOMEH 2013;26(4) 596 The questionnaires were completed anonymously and submitted directly to the researcher.…”

“…Moreover, in this study emotional exhaustion correlated with job security (see Table 1). According to Laszlo's results [44], this can help anticipate the health costs of the process of energy depletion. Insufficient respect and esteem also had an influence (although weaker) on the intensification of emotional exhaustion in surgical nurses.…”

Job security and employee well-being: Evidence from matched survey and register data

“…There are also related studies (e.g. Vahtera et al 1997;Martikainen et al 2008;László et al 2010;Rugulies et al 2010) that examine the effects of downsizing, job insecurity and workplace closures on health and mortality.…”

Health effects of job insecurity

“…In another recent study it has been shown that across 16 European countries there is a robust statistical association between insecurity and poor health among older employees [4]. The study finds that employees who reported that their "job security was poor" were 39% less likely to report that their health was good or very good (as opposed to fair, poor, or very poor).…”