Persistent job insecurity takes toll

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Aug. 31 (UPI) -- Persistent job insecurity -- not necessarily job loss -- poses a major threat to worker health, U.S. researchers found.

Sociologist Sarah Burgard and James House of the University of Michigan and Jennie Brand at the University of California, Los Angeles, analyzed data on more than 1,700 adults collected over periods from 3-10 years. By interviewing the same people at different points in time, the researchers were able to disentangle the connection between poor health and job insecurity, and to control for the impact of actual job loss and other factors.

One of the studies was conducted between 1986 and 1989 and the other between 1995 and 2005.

"It may seem surprising that chronically high job-insecurity is more strongly linked with health declines than actual job loss or unemployment," Burgard said in a statement. "Ongoing ambiguity about the future, inability to take action unless the feared event actually happens, and the lack of institutionalized supports associated with perceived insecurity are among them."

To measure feelings of job insecurity, study participants were asked, "How likely is that during the next couple of years you will involuntarily lose your main job?" At any given time, as many as 18 percent of those surveyed felt insecure about their jobs, the study said.

The findings are published in the journal Social Science and Medicine.