National unemployment rates and the meaning of work: a cross-level examination

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper examines how and why work meaning (i.e., what work signifies to an individual) is affected by a macroeconomic indicator: the national unemployment rate. We conducted three studies that explore how and why perceptions of work meaning are related to the unemployment rate of the country in which the work is embedded. Study 1 utilized cross-national data from the International Social Survey Programme and revealed that higher unemployment rates in a country were associated with employees placing less emphasis on the non-financial aspects of work meaning; Study 2 used data from the General Social Survey and found that during worse economic conditions, employees in the US tended to prioritize financial job meaning more. In Study 3, an experiment similarly found that individuals placed more emphasis on financial work meaning in the high unemployment condition compared to the control condition. It also identified the important mediating role of individual experience of uncertainty in explaining such relationships. This paper discusses how our findings contribute to better understandings of the societal-level antecedents of work meaning.