Job Insecurity and Stress: Gender Differences in the Credit Crunch Recession

Dr Brendan Burchellbb101@cam.ac.uk

Department of SociologyUniversity of Cambridge, UK

Thanks to Nurjk Agloni for research and graphics

The ClaimsThe Daily Telegraph March 4th

Harriet Harman: Women more worried about economy than men

The Observer, Jan 18

The real victims of this credit crunch? Women

The Sunday TimesJanuary 25, 2009

Women losing jobs twice as fast as men

Independent, Jan 26 According to latest official employment figures, over the last quarter the number of women in full-time jobs fell by 53,000, while the number for men was 36,000.

Overview

1. Definitions of Job Insecurity

2. Job Insecurity: Gender Differences:-

I. Who will lose their jobs? II. Who is worried about losing

their jobs?III. Who think they will lose their

jobs? IV. Who will suffer

psychologically if they are insecure?

3. Shock vs chronic consequences

1. Definitions of Job

Insecurity

Definitions of job insecurity

1 Subjective perception of risk of job loss (Cognitive)2 Level of worry about job loss (affective)3 Objective decline in Employment / Redundancy Rate4 Prevalence of temporary contracts (low, irrelevant)5 Average tenure (unrelated to insecurity)

I. Who will lose their jobs?

Keeping things in perspective:Drop of 56,000/15M, 0.4%

“According to latest official employment figures, over the last quarter the number of women in full-time jobs fell by 53,000, while the number for men was 36,000”.

Who will lose their job?

Quarterly Redundancies 1995-2008, per 1,000

Who will lose their job?

Quarterly Redundancies by Gender, per 1,000

Who will lose their job?

Who will lose their job?

Apr-0

1 Ju

l-01

Oct

-01

Jan-

02Ap

r-02

Jul-0

2O

ct-0

2Ja

n-03

Apr-0

3Ju

l-03

Oct

-03

Jan-

04Ap

r-04

Jul-0

4O

ct-0

4Ja

n-05

Apr-0

5Ju

l-05

Oct

-05

Jan-

06Ap

r-06

Jul-0

6O

ct-0

6Ja

n-07

Apr-0

7Ju

l-07

Oct

-07

Jan-

08Ap

r-08

Jul-0

8O

ct-0

8Ja

n-09

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

Level of Vacancies 2001 - 2009

vacancies

leve

ls o

f va

canc

ies

III.Who is worried about losing their

jobs?

Who is worried about losing their jobs?

Worry index (mean score) All Men WomenThe risk of losing my job 53.5 48.3 58.1

Source: Populus January 2009

Question: “I am going to read out some things that different people have identified as worrying aspects of Britain's

economic downturn. For each one I read out please say how concerned you are, using a scale of 0 to 100,

where 0 means it doesn't worry you at all and 100 means it worries you a very great deal “

Worry index (mean score) All Men WomenRising cost of living 74.5 70.1 78.3

The drop in the value of the pound against other currencies making imports & overseas travel more expensive 64.8 60.9 68.2

The drop in the stock market reducing the value of my pension 64.0 58.4 68.9

The security of my money in the bank 59.4 53.5 64.6

The prospect of possibly having to take a pay cut 58.4 52.6 63.4

Low interest rates reducing the return on my savings 58.1 54.0 61.8

The risk of losing my job 53.5 48.3 58.1Falling property prices bringing me into negative equity on my home * 47.3 41.9 51.9

Source: PopulusQuestion: “I am going to read out some things that different people have identified as worrying aspects of Britain's economic downturn. For each one I read out please say how concerned you are, using a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 means it doesn't worry you at all and 100 means it worries you a very great deal “

Who is worried about losing their jobs

Why do women report more worry about losing their jobs?

Three Hypotheses

1 Gendered Response Styles√?

2 Women are more averse to risk√?

3 Women’s are going to suffer more in the recession XX

II. Who think they will lose their jobs?

European Working Conditions Survey 2005 Q: Losing job in next 6 months

No gender difference in EU or UK

European Social Survey 2006 Q: Losing job and becoming Unemployed in 12

months No gender difference in EU or UK (see also Erlinghagen (2008) ESR for 2004-2005 – no

gender differences)

Who thinks that they will lose their jobs?

IV. Who will suffer if they are insecure?

GHQ and Re-Employment: Men

1,4

1,6

1,8

2

2,2

Autumn 1986 Spring 1987

Gen

eral

Hea

lth Q

uest

ionn

aire

stayedunemployed

became securelyemployed

becameinsecurelyemployed

Who will suffer if they are insecure?

GHQ and Re-Employment: Women

1,4

1,6

1,8

2

2,2

Autumn 1986 Spring 1987

Gen

eral

Hea

lth Q

uest

ionn

aire stayed

unemployed

became securelyemployed

becameinsecurelyemployed

Who will suffer if they are insecure?

3. Shock vs chronic

consequences of job

insecurity

Start of spell Recover

y, or coping

Low point

Figure 1. The chronology of unemployment and stress

Shock vs chronic consequences

(3 waves of BHPS data)

Job Security Low Job Security Low Job Security High

Mean GHQ score

.216

.214

.212

.210

.208

.206

.204

Chronic Job Insecurity and Psychological Well – Being in the 1990s recession (Burchell, 2008)

Shock vs chronic consequences

(3 waves of BHPS data)

Job Security Low Job Security Low Job Security High

Mean GHQ score

.216

.214

.212

.210

.208

.206

.204

Chronic Job Insecurity and Psychological Well – Being in the 1990s recession (Burchell, 2008)

Shock vs chronic consequences

Secure

Shock at first perception of insecurity

Chronic decline

Recovery from shock

Figure 2. The effect of job insecurity on Psychological wellbeing over time.

Shock vs chronic consequences

Men experience higher levels of involuntary job loss than women

In past two recessions, Male unemployment rose much faster than Female unemployment All evidence so far suggests more similarity than difference in the current recession.

Women report higher levels of worry about losing their jobs, but also about all other aspects of the economy

The Vacancies Data suggest that he real losers will be entrants to the labour markets – e.g. school leavers, career-break returners.

Conclusions: Gender

Many studies show that job insecurity is a significant threat to employee wellbeing (even if they never lose their jobs). Some studies show this effect is larger for men than women, but Household/Breadwinner Status probably more important than Gender per se. Effects extend to families.

Recently many employees have gone through a “shock” phase of job insecurity. Chronic job insecurity over more than one year is much worse.

Will this recession be different from previous recessions? Different industries, higher female employment? Government proactive in attempting to cope with insecurity

and unemployment.

“in these early days the Government has power to shapeboth the impact of this recession and to build a path to recovery that creates a fairer and stronger economy. Government has a choice as to how workers’ rights are treated during the downturn.” Fawcett Society.

Conclusions: General