Job Quality and Well-Being: Evidence from DR Congo

In the context of dualism sector-informal labour market and formal labour market, this study has assessed the impact of job quality on worker’s well-being. Using the phase 1 of the 2012 national survey data 1-2-3, the preliminary results have shown that among 1,443 of the employees, 85.44% are working in informal sector whereas 14.56% in formal sector. Given its multidimensionnal characteristics, the job quality was measured by six components such as job security, existence of union, training, employer’s support, worked hours and promotion. In terms of contribution of each dimension, the Multiple Component Analysis was applied and the finding has conducted us to select the three first components with 46%, 39% and 15% of contribution respectively on constructing the job quality index. On other side, the well-being was measured by worker’s income and two classes-rich employee and poor employee-were created using the 2012 monetary threshold according to the place of residence. We estimated afterwards the logit model. Our results have revealed that the effect of job quality is significantly positive on worker’s well-being in both cases workers from Informal Sector and all workers irrespectively of their sector. In formal sector, the evidence of the significant impact of job quality was statistically rejected. The main explanation of this finding can be imputed to the job quality level which is already high in formal sector compared to informal sector. Furthermore, for all workers, this result is a consequence of the dominant effect of job quality on worker’s well-being in informal sector on that in formal sector. In view of above findings, there is a need of controlling and strengthening the job quality in informal sector for an increase in job security index by one unit, the probability that worker’s well-being increases is 0.38.