In the 1997 and 1998 waves of the British Household Panel Survey, workers are asked to assess their level of job security in terms of the probability of becoming unemployed within the next year. We examine whether these perceptions of insecurity are purely subjective or are systematically related to certain characteristics of the worker and their current job. The responses offered by workers suggest that around 10% are in fear of becoming unemployed, and this fear is not persistently confined to the same workers or to particular occupational groups. Individuals with a history of unemployment and those holding short-term employment contracts are found to report the greatest levels of insecurity. Finally, we find that workers' perceptions of unemployment are strong predictors of actual unemployment experiences occurring in the subsequent year. We therefore conclude that such subjective measures of insecurity do convey useful information that may be used in further analyses of the workings of the labour market.
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Paper provided by Department of Economics, University of Kent in its series Studies in Economics with number
0108.
Length: Date of creation: Apr 2001 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:ukc:ukcedp:0108
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Find related papers by JEL classification: J28 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Safety; Job Satisfaction; Related Public Policy C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
David Campbell & Alan Carruth & Andrew Dickerson & Francis Green, 2007.
"Job insecurity and wages,"
Economic Journal,
Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(518), pages 544-566, 03.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
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David Campbell & Alan Carruth & Andrew Dickerson & Francis Green, 2008.
"Job Insecurity and Wages,"
Studies in Economics
0813, Department of Economics, University of Kent.
[Downloadable!]
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