Does employment status matter for job quality? A cross-national perspective

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Dual labour market theory raises questions about the relationship between non-standard employment and job quality. While scattered empirical evidence exists, there is a paucity of systematic evidence on the relationship between workers’ employment status and job quality. OBJECTIVE: The authors investigated the relation between workers’ employment status (e.g., open-ended, long- and short-term fixed contracts, economically dependent and independent solo self-employment, and self-employment with employees) and important dimensions of job quality (JQ) (e.g., employment prospects, physical work environment, skills and discretion, and working times quality). Cross-national variation in that relation and causes of that variation (e.g., country-level unemployment rate and labour market efficiency) were also investigated. METHODS: Hierarchical regression modelling was applied using a sample of 34,094 workers from the European Working Conditions Survey 2015. RESULTS: The study highlighted a negative association between fixed-term contracts and JQ. For self-employed workers (except economically dependent self-employed workers) a generally positive association was observed. In this study, also positive associations were found between labour market efficiency at the country-level and some JQ indicators. National unemployment rates were negatively associated to most JQ indicators. CONCLUSION: Non-standard employment contracts exhibited poorer job quality than open-ended contracts. Stronger labour market organization centred around indicators of both flexibility and equity related to more beneficial job quality for all employment statuses, thereby promoting more labour market inclusivity.