Employment Precarization and Subjective Well-Being of Employees in Different Age Groups

Abstract

The article looks into age-related differences in the degree of employment precarization and in the nature of its relationship with the subjective well-being of workers, with the perception of unstable conditions of employment and labor activity. Based on data from the all-Russian survey of the working population, three worker age groups are compared: up to 29 years old, 30–49 years old, 50 years old and up. It is found that indicators of precarization are more common among young people, while being less often found among older people and middle-aged workers. These age groups go in the same order if they are ranked in descending order of employment precarization index values, which is a number constructed of those precarity indicators that an employee displays simultaneously. Age-related differences are also found in the specifics of the relationship between precarization and subjective assessments of the situation in the realm of work and life in general. Unstable employment hurts middle-aged workers the most: among them an increase in employment precarization is associated not just with a decrease in satisfaction with one’s job, wages and working conditions (that’s typical for all age categories), but also with increased concern over various problems at their place of work, social pessimism, dissatisfaction with life and the changes that have occurred in it. For young people and older workers only a few of these indicators (primarily those related to evaluations of working conditions and place of work) are associated with increased employment precarization.