From Unemployment to Employment and Back: Professional Trajectories and Well-Being

Abstract

So far, only few studies have considered different aspects of well-being in studying losing or gaining employment. We examined life satisfaction, mental health, and the orientations to pleasure, engagement, and meaning over two years in a large sample of the Swiss labor force (N = 1231). We analyzed four different trajectories: Individuals always being employed, never being employed, those who lost employment, and those who gained employment. Results showed that losing and gaining employment went along with expected changes in life satisfaction and mental health. Additionally, gaining employment went along with increases in the orientations to pleasure, engagement, and meaning while a decrease in the orientation to pleasure was observed in the constantly unemployed. Further, life satisfaction was predictive for gaining employment, mental health problems were predictive for losing employment, and the orientations to pleasure, engagement, and meaning were unrelated to the future employment status. We conclude, in line with earlier studies, that well-being might be an important resource for coping with vulnerabilities and could be used for identifying risk groups with regard to employment status.