Epidemic of Job Insecurity Takes Toll on Worker Health, Says Study
ANN ARBOR, Mich.
Amid growing news of layoffs, outsourcing, corporate bankruptcies and downsizing, a University of Michigan study finds that feeling insecure about your job takes a toll on physical and mental health — whether you actually lose your job or not.
In fact, the health effects of job insecurity are at least as great as the health effects of a serious or life-threatening illness.
The study of job insecurity and health in the United States was presented at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America in Los Angeles.
The study, based on an analysis of data from a nationally representative, longitudinal survey conducted by the UM Institute for Social Research, includes information on more than 1,000 men and women under the age of 60 who were interviewed twice, about three years apart.
“The strength of this study is that we not only have multiple measures of insecurity but we also have actual measures of job loss,” says Sarah Burgard, a sociologist at the ISR and the lead author of the study.
