Changing Attitudes in a Changing Economy: Perceived Job and Labor Market Precarity in the United States

• In Event: 256 - Section on Organizations, Occupations and Work Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 07. Job Insecurity and Precarious Employment II

Abstract

Broader changes in the political and economic spheres have shaped the world of work and created a context of insecurity. Examining individual workers’ perceptions of employment insecurity is a particularly important endeavor because they can be indicative of structural economic transformations and often condition workers’ actions within the labor market. This study addresses two main research questions: First, how have U.S. workers’ perceptions of economic insecurity changed in recent years? Second, what factors of security, control, uncertainty, and conflict have contributed to these changes in U.S. workers’ subjective economic insecurity? These questions are addressed by analyzing data from the Quality of Working Life module of the General Social Survey, which was asked of respondents in 2002, 2006, and 2010. I find that while factors typically associated with secure work reduce perceived job precarity, they tend to increase workers’ feelings of insecurity in terms of their ability to find another job similar to their current position (i.e. perceived labor market precarity). Finally, the results show that the Great Recession produced higher levels of perceived labor market precarity but had no significant effect on traditional measures of perceived job precarity.

Author

• Travis S. Lowe, University of Tulsa