Psychological well-being of South Korean employees in different occupational classes

Abstract

We compared the mental health of waged Korean workers in different occupational classes. This was a secondary analysis of data from the fifth Korean Working Conditions Survey, conducted in 2017. Men who were “Unskilled manual workers” were more likely to report poor psychological well-being; however, analysis that adjusted for multiple factors (including work stressors and stress relievers) indicated that status as an “Unskilled manual worker” was not associated with poor psychological well-being. Male and female “Service and Sales workers” were less likely to report poor psychological well-being (aOR = 0.794 and 0.797, respectively). In addition, poor psychological well-being increased as the number of work stressors increased and decreased as the number of stress relievers increased. Work stressors and stress relievers are more deterministic than occupational categories on psychological well-being.