Author:

Keywords:

Social Sciences, Industrial Relations & Labor, Business & Economics, Contingent employment, employment security, Europe, job and life satisfaction, well-being, PERCEIVED EMPLOYABILITY, CONTRACT TYPE, EMPLOYMENT, WORKERS, HEALTH, ATTITUDES, CONSEQUENCES, COMMITMENT, MODERATOR, AGENCY, 1402 Applied Economics, 1503 Business and Management, 1608 Sociology, Industrial Relations, 3505 Human resources and industrial relations, 4407 Policy and administration

Abstract:

Earlier studies established that perceived job insecurity is more strongly related to the experiences of permanent employees, and conversely that perceived employability is more strongly related to the experiences of temporary employees. This article challenges these results against the background of the 2008/2009 crisis using samples from the 2010 European Social Survey with employees from Continental and Mediterranean Europe. First, the authors argue that job insecurity has become a structural phenomenon that associates with temporary and permanent employees’ satisfaction in the same fashion, which found overall support. Second, they argue that employability may have become important for all employees, regardless of contract type, which was largely supported. A cause for concern is that the relationship between perceived job insecurity and satisfaction was comparatively stronger than the relationship between perceived employability and satisfaction. This may suggest that employees have not yet fully embraced ideas about employability as the new form of security.