Escaping From Job Precarity Is Not Enough! The Temporal Dynamics of Perceived Job Insecurity in China

• In Event: Organizations, Occupations, and Work Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 6: How Precarity Impacts Workers

Abstract

How the growing prevalence of precarious work translates into subjective job insecurity remains conceptually elusive and empirically fragmented. The perceived job insecurity often does not align neatly with individuals’ structural location in precarious jobs. Bringing temporal dynamics of job insecurity into view, this study examines how transitions between precarious and non-precarious employment – and the cumulative exposure they entail – affect perceived job insecurity. Using panel data from the China Family Panel Studies (2016–2022) and two-way fixed-effects models, I show that short-term employment lowers perceived job security overall. Transitioning from short-term to long-term employment increases individuals’ perceived job security, but these gains are insufficient to restore it to the levels observed when they remain continuously in long-term employment (scarring effect). Conversely, when workers slide into short-term jobs, prior long-term employment buffers perceived job insecurity, leaving them more secure than if they had remained continuously in long-term employment (shadowing premium). Educational attainment and life-course stage mitigate the scarring effect of short-term employment. Women and urban workers experience larger shadowing premiums of long-term employment. Together, these findings demonstrate that workers’ interpretations of structural job precarity reflect not only a snapshot of current employment conditions but also cumulative exposure to employment experiences.

Author

• Zhipeng Zhou, Cornell University