Don't ignore the health impact of job insecurity
December 1, 2009 2 minutes read
Don't ignore the health impact of job insecurity
These days, many workers have a high amount of anxiety over job security, with good reason. Now, a new study shows this poses a major threat to worker health.
Researchers analyzed data on over 1700 adults collected over periods from three to ten years, to determine if there was any link between poor health and job security. They found that in fact, worrying over job loss was strongly linked to health declines, even more so than actual job loss or unemployment.1
Study author Sarah Burgard, PhD, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research in Ann Arbor, says that at first, she was surprised by the study's findings. "I started working on this with the expectation that the link between perceived job insecurity and subsequent health would be accounted for by the effects of actual job losses that some people worried about job loss were correctly forecasting," she says. "But, we found that people who were persistently concerned about losing their jobs reported significantly worse overall health in both studies. In one of the studies, they were more depressed than those who had actually lost and regained their jobs recently."
However, Burgard says that after some reflection, it made sense that persistent insecurity could lead to poor health. This could be due to ongoing uncertainty about the future, the inability to take action unless the feared event actually happens, and lack of institutionalized supports for perceived job insecurity.
"When you consider that not only income but so many of the important benefits that give Americans some peace of mind-including health insurance and retirement benefits-are tied to employment for most people, it's understandable that persistent job insecurity is so stressful," says Burgard.
To counter this tendency, Burgard says that communication is key. "Increasing information so that employees can make plans could be very helpful," she says. "Keeping people in the dark will increase negative water cooler chatter, lower the productivity of stressed workers, and may hurt the bottom line."
Reference
1. Burgard S, Brand J, House JS. Perceived job insecurity and worker health in the United States. Social Science & Medicine 2009; 69(5):777-785.
SOURCE
For more information on job insecurity's impact on health, contact:
Sarah Burgard, PhD, Department of Sociology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Phone: (734) 615-9538. E-mail: [email protected]
These days, many workers have a high amount of anxiety over job security, with good reason. Now, a new study shows this poses a major threat to worker health.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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