Temporary employment, job satisfaction and subjective well-being

Chris Dawson, Michail Veliziotis, Benjamin Hopkins

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

34 Citations (Scopus)
543 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This article is concerned with whether employees on temporary contracts in Britain report lower well-being than those on permanent contracts, and whether this relationship is mediated by differences in dimensions of job satisfaction. Previous research has identified a well-being gap between permanent and temporary employees but has not addressed what individual and contract specific characteristics contribute to this observed difference. Using data from the British Household Panel Survey, the article finds that a large proportion of the difference in self-reported well-being between permanent and temporary employees appears to be explained by differences in satisfaction with job security. Other dimensions of job satisfaction are found to be less important. In fact, after controlling for differences in satisfaction with security, the results suggest that temporary employees report higher psychological well-being and life satisfaction. This indicates that an employment contract characterized by a definite duration lowers individual well-being principally through heightened job insecurity.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)69-98
JournalEconomic and Industrial Democracy
Volume38
Issue number1
Early online date17 Dec 2014
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Feb 2017

Keywords

  • job insecurity
  • job satisfaction
  • subjective well-being
  • temporary employment

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