Abstract
Between 2008 and 2013, the Netherlands was confronted by a severe recession. This recession may have affected the job satisfaction of workers. Currently, little is known about how job satisfaction changes during a recession. To investigate the effect of the 2008–2013 recession on job satisfaction in the Netherlands, and to assess how job satisfaction changed over time. Longitudinal data from six waves of a national panel in the Netherlands are used to investigate the effects. These data capture the periods before, during and after the recession. A Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition technique is used to decompose the ordinal outcome variable job satisfaction. Subsequent waves are compared, which results in five comparison groups. Workers who participated in subsequent waves are matched to assess their job satisfaction over time. Cross-sectional associations are analyzed using the entire unmatched dataset. Workers became more satisfied with their job during the recession. After the recession ended, average job satisfaction decreased again. Both unmatched and matched analyses indicated only changes in job level affecting job satisfaction. The coefficient of education had a small effect cross-sectionally. The level of education and industry had a small effect longitudinally. However, these effects were not robust. Job satisfaction decreased before the recession commenced but increased during the recession. After the recession, job satisfaction decreased again. An increase in job satisfaction during the recession may be explained by a change in the composition of workers with respect to job level, instead of by the effect of predictors.
Highlights
The 2007 recession that started in the United States quickly engulfed many of the world’s largest economies (Axelrad et al 2017; Clench-Aas and Holte 2017; The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission 2011)
This study investigated the effect of the 2008–2013 recession on job satisfaction in the Netherlands, and assessed how job satisfaction changed over time
To account for potential attrition bias, we investigated the potential existence of differences between first-time participants and those who had participated in the panel before, in explaining the difference in job satisfaction
Summary
The 2007 recession that started in the United States quickly engulfed many of the world’s largest economies (Axelrad et al 2017; Clench-Aas and Holte 2017; The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission 2011). In Europe, many countries were confronted by a severe economic downturn in 2008, and a second recession in 2010 (Clench-Aas and Holte 2017; Karanikolos et al 2013). The Netherlands was in a recession between 2008 until the second quarter of 2013 (Boelhouwer 2017). Poland was the only EU member state that did not experience a decline in GDP (Karanikolos et al 2013). Poland was the only EU member state that did not experience a decline in GDP (Karanikolos et al 2013). Kickert (2012) concluded that, at that time, this recession was one of the largest challenges that Western countries were faced with
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