Persistent worries about job security pose a greater threat to workers’ health than either smoking or blood pressure, says a new study.
“In fact, chronic job insecurity is a stronger predictor of poor health than either smoking or hypertension ...,” said study leader Sarah Burgard, sociologist at University of Michigan (U-M) Institute for Social Research.
“Dramatic changes in the US labour market have weakened bonds between employers and employees and fuelled perceptions of job insecurity,” added Burgard.
The study used long-term data from two nationally representative sample surveys of US population to assess the impact of chronic job insecurity, apart from actual job loss.
Burgard and colleagues Jennie Brand (University of California, Los Angeles) and James House at U-M analysed data on more than 1,700 adults collected over periods from three to 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, said a U-M release.
One of the studies was conducted between 1986 and 1989, 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,” said Burgard.
“Certainly job insecurity is nothing new, but the numbers experiencing persistent job insecurity could be considerably higher during this global recession, so these findings could apply much more broadly today than they did even a few years ago,” added Bugard.
These results are slated for publication in the September issue of Social Science and Medicine.
