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Job Satisfaction Over the Life Course

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  • David G. Blanchflower
  • Alex Bryson

Abstract

We examine the relationship between union membership and job satisfaction over the life-course using data from the National Child Development Study (NCDS) tracking all those born in Great Britain in a single week in March in 1958 through to age 55 (2013). Data from immigrants as well as non-respondents to the original 1958 Perinatal Mortality Study (PMS) are added in later years. Conditioning on one’s social class at birth, together with one’s education and employment status, we find there is a significant negative correlation between union membership and job satisfaction that is apparent across the life-course. Lagged union membership status going back many years is negatively correlated with current job satisfaction, though its effects become statistically non-significant when conditioning on current union membership status. These results provide a different perspective to longitudinal studies showing short-term positive responses to switches in membership status. They are consistent with earlier work showing that this cohort of workers, and others before them, have persistently lower job satisfaction as union members compared to their non-union counterparts.

Suggested Citation

  • David G. Blanchflower & Alex Bryson, 2020. "Job Satisfaction Over the Life Course," NBER Working Papers 28206, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28206
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    Cited by:

    1. Goerke, Laszlo & Huang, Yue, 2022. "Job satisfaction and trade union membership in Germany," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    2. David G. Blanchflower & Alex Bryson & Colin Green, 2022. "Trade unions and the well‐being of workers," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(2), pages 255-277, June.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J28 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Safety; Job Satisfaction; Related Public Policy
    • J50 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - General
    • J51 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - Trade Unions: Objectives, Structure, and Effects

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