Who stays unwillingly in a job? A study based on a representative random sample of employees

Abstract

This article examines the antecedents of intentions to quit, job search and actual job switches during a follow-up period. The authors use a representative random sample of all Finnish employees. The data set both contains information on intentions to quit and on-the-job search from a cross-sectional survey and records employees’ actual job switches from longitudinal register data that can be linked to the survey. The authors study the contribution of adverse working conditions (harms, hazards, uncertainty and physically and mentally heavy work), work organization (promotion prospects, discrimination and supervisor support) and ease-of-movement factors (mental health, wage level). Adverse working conditions, poor promotion prospects, discrimination and mental health symptoms are positively related to unwillingly staying in a job, since these variables increase the probability of turnover intentions or job search but not actual job switches. These variables include both factors that push employees to job search and factors that make them less employable.