2 - Objective and Subjective Job Insecurity in Europe

Summary

This chapter first provides an overview of the diffusion of the various dimensions of objective and subjective job insecurity across European countries for young and adult workers.

The analysis presented in this chapter is comparative across European member states and is based on data from several sources, including all 28 member states across relevant years (UK included). As regards objective job insecurity, cross-sectional data from OECD and Eurostat are employed, while for subjective job insecurity the source of data used is the European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS, 2012, 2016).

One of the aims of this section is to investigate whether the institutional filters of the welfare state regime still play a role in mediating the perception of job insecurity, according to the literature on the filtering role of the different welfare states (Blossfeld et al, 2005; Blossfeld, Buchholz, Hofacker and Kolb, 2011) and the variety of capitalism (Hall and Soskice, 2001).

Second, the analysis identifies micro level patterns associated with individual characteristics, with particular attention to age, separating young workers in the age range 18– 34 from adult workers (35– 54).

Data for objective insecurity are presented for youth and young adults; data for subjective job insecurity compare young and young adults with adults.

Finally, a last section is devoted to the interrelationship between objective and subjective job insecurity, analyzing inconsistent profiles, namely individuals who fall out of the automatic match between objective and subjective job insecurity. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the overall (and multidimensional) concept of job insecurity. Moreover, identifying which groups – particularly if young workers – are mainly affected by this mismatch has important consequences in terms of policy implications, in particular regarding the chances of young people taking the next steps into adulthood.

Objective and subjective job insecurity in Europe for young and adult workers

Overview of objective job insecurity for young people (18– 34) across welfare state regimes

In line with standard definitions, the age bracket used in this book to identify young people is 15– 24 years. For the sake of the analysis of a multidimensional concept like job insecurity, and due to the cross-country comparison that involves different labour market and welfare regimes (associated with different timings of entering the labour market), this chapter extends the age range of interest to include young adults as well, namely individuals in the age range 25– 34.