Abstract
The perception of job insecurity is known to be a stressful condition for employees. Less is known about employment insecurity and the ways employees and their families deal with it. This study investigates whether participation in further training is a strategy that employees adopt to reduce perceived employment insecurity. As participation in further training is often costly and time-consuming, we assume that the family context is of importance for the decision to take part in further training. To take account of possible self-selection, we apply a propensity score matching procedure on longitudinal data from the Swiss Household Panel (2004-2013). Three main findings can be emphasized: first, participation in further training is not a strategy adopted particularly by employees who perceive high employment insecurity as they are less likely to train than their secure counterparts. Second, even though further training is not a strategy that is actively adopted, employees who train subsequently report lower levels of perceived employment insecurity. Third, the family context indeed influences the likelihood to train: partnered employees are more likely to train and preschool-aged children act as a constraint on women’s but enhance men’s participation in further training. Yet, in the context of high perceived employment insecurity, children generally reduce their parents’ likelihood to train as the parents may turn to other strategies that reduce perceived employment insecurity.
Highlights
As a consequence of economic crises, increasing unemployment rates, and the growing flexibility of labor markets, many employees see a threat to their employment, which provides them with income, social networks, privileges, and status (Castel, 1994; Hobfoll, 1989; Sverke, Hellgren, & Näswall, 2002), and feel powerless about their employment situation (Greenhalgh & Rosenblatt, 1984)
We have shown that previous research mainly focused on unemployment and perceived job insecurity, and little is known about the impact of further training on perceived employment insecurity
We have argued that participation in further training is a strategy that employees who feel insecure adopt to reduce their employment insecurity and that the decision to train is influenced by the family context
Summary
As a consequence of economic crises, increasing unemployment rates, and the growing flexibility of labor markets, many employees see a threat to their employment, which provides them with income, social networks, privileges, and status (Castel, 1994; Hobfoll, 1989; Sverke, Hellgren, & Näswall, 2002), and feel powerless about their employment situation (Greenhalgh & Rosenblatt, 1984) They experience a lack of controllability and predictability leading to a high burden as they are in the dark about their future (De Witte, 2005). The employee perceives a low level of employment insecurity despite high perceived job insecurity
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