Who stay unwillingly in a job? A study based on a representative random sample of employees

The paper examines the antecedents of intentions to quit, job search, and actual job switches during a five-year follow-up period. We use a representative random sample of all Finnish employees (N = 2800). The data both contain information on intentions to quit and on-the-job search from a cross-section survey and records employees’ actual job switches from longitudinal register data that can be linked to the survey. Specifically, we study the contribution of adverse working conditions (harms, hazards, uncertainty, physically and mentally heavy work), work organization (promotion prospects, discrimination, supervisor support) and ease-of-movement factors (mental health, wage level, regional unemployment). According to the estimates, adverse working conditions, poor promotions prospects, discrimination, poor supervisor support and mental health symptoms are positively related to unwillingly staying in a job, since these variables increase the probability of turnover intentions or job search but not actual job switches.