Perception Of Insecurity Research Articles

Employment Precarity, COVID-19 Risk, and Workers' Well-Being During the Pandemic in Europe

The COVID-19 crisis highlights a growing precarity in employment and the importance of employment for workers' well-being. Existing studies primarily examine the consequences of employment precarity through non-standard employment arrangements or the perception of job insecurity as a one-dimensional measure. Recent scholars advocate a multidimensional construct with a wide range of objective and subjective characteristics of precariousness. Using data from Eurofound's Living, Working, and COVID-19 surveys, I define employment precarity as the objective form of employment instability, as well as subjective terms of job insecurity and emotional precariousness. I also investigate whether and how various facets of employment precarity along with COVID-19 risk are associated with workers' mental and subjective well-being across 27 European Union member states during the pandemic. This study sheds light on a comprehensive understanding of objective and subjective dimensions of employment precarity, as well as their effects on workers' well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 context and job insecurity among casual employees: The predictive value of education, financial stress, and coping ability

This study examined COVID-19 mitigation and job insecurity among casual employees and the role of educational attainment, coping ability, and financial stress in that relationship. We surveyed 238 casual employees from five industries in the Southwestern part of Nigeria (female= 23.5%; age range= 20-56 years, mean age= 32.63 years, SD = 7.50 years) on their job insecurity in the COVID-19 pandemic. This was done in relation to educational attainment, coping ability, and financial stress. In a three-model hierarchical linear regression, educational attainment was the most predictive of job insecurity, followed by financial stress; then coping ability. There was no interactive effect of coping ability and financial stress on job insecurity. Separately, gender, age, and number of years of work experience of casual employees had no effect on their perceptions of job insecurity. Our findings suggest that regardless of gender, age, or years of work experience of casual employees, they perceived better job stability and opportunities during COVID-19 pandemic if they have a higher education, are financially stress-free, and can manage challenges that come their way.

Living on the Edge: Institutional Supports and Perceptions of Economic Insecurity Among People with Disabilities and Chronic Health Conditions

The growth of precarious employment coupled with declining social safety nets has increased economic insecurity among many households, leaving them without key resources to weather financial hardships like those brought on by the COVID‐19 pandemic. This has been especially true for people whose disabilities, health statuses, and already precarious economic situations have made them extra vulnerable. We combine survey (N = 1,027) and interview (N = 50) data for Canadians with disabilities and chronic health conditions to explore how mobilizing four types of institutional supports connected to labor markets, financial markets, family, and government influenced perceptions of current and future insecurity during crisis. Because employment income was only available to about half of our respondents, many relied on a combination of savings, family supports, and government programs to make up the difference. This paper demonstrates how marginalized groups make use of different supports within liberal welfare states during times of crisis.

Reduction of the Perception of Employment Insecurity in the Italian Regions between 2013 and 2019

Reduction of the Perception of Employment Insecurity in the Italian Regions between 2013 and 2019

Reduction of the Perception of Employment Insecurity in the Italian Regions between 2013 and 2019

Reduction of the Perception of Employment Insecurity in the Italian Regions between 2013 and 2019

Exploring the obstacles towards the creation of a circular economy: Replacement and reuse of mobile phones in Greater Mexico City

This paper aims to identify the obstacles to creating a circular economy for mobile phones in Greater Mexico City (GMC). With this goal in mind, 50 in-depth interviews were performed in the Mexican capital to explore the behaviour of Millennial consumers towards mobile phone ownership, replacement, and disposal practices. Practice Theory was employed to analyse why people in GMC replace their phones while they are still useful, the conduit to replace them and what happens to the replaced phones. The findings of this study suggest that, in opposition to popular belief, consumers are not driven exclusively by individual desires and the pursuit of novelty. Furthermore, we identified that the illicit market for stolen phones in GMC and the short mobile services contract incentivise phones' premature disposal and replacement. Insecurity perception and pedestrian mugging are so high in GMC that they have impacted all income levels and significantly increased mobile stockpiling. Overall, the results propose that instead of solely placing efforts at the disposal stage, authorities and companies shouikld address these issues to decrease mobile replacement rates.

The Role of Perceived Job Insecurity in Predicting Multiple Jobholding

Perceived job insecurity is often viewed as a work stressor that impacts cognitive, affective, and behavioral reactions on the job. Encouraged by the shift toward greater flexibility and gig work in modern times, individuals may decide to pursue multiple jobholding, i.e., start side jobs alongside a primary employed or self-employed position, to diversify risk and acquire additional resources to deal with perceived job insecurity. While acknowledging these benefits, this paper further argues that the resources provided to job insecure individuals by multiple jobholding, such as greater financial security, come at the expense of other resources, such as the investment of effort and time. Thereby, drawing from conservation of resources theory and relying on longitudinal data about 3,117 job spells for 807 unique German individuals from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we develop and test competing hypotheses about the relationship between individuals’ perceptions of job insecurity and the decision to take on multiple jobs. Results from survival analyses indicate that higher levels of perceived job insecurity reduce the probability of taking on secondary jobs. These findings advance existing research on job insecurity and multiple jobholding and in the growing fields of sustainable careers and career inaction while informing a broad audience, including individuals, organizations, and policymakers.

Qualitative job insecurity and voice behavior: Evaluation of the mediating effect of affective organizational commitment

Using social exchange theory as the foundation, this research examines the consequences of qualitative job insecurity on voice behavior, considering the indirect effect of affective organizational commitment. The hypotheses raised are tested using data drawn from a sample of 137 employees of a retailer in Chile at three time points. Workers with high qualitative job insecurity reported lower affective organizational commitment, which in turn decreased their voice behavior. Organizational leaders could encourage employee voice behaviors by reducing their perceptions of qualitative job insecurity and increasing their affective organizational commitment.

Covid-19 Related Stressors and Performance: The Case of Lebanese Employees During the Pandemic

In the aftermath of Covid-19 and the national lockdown, various firms and companies were obliged to operate remotely from work. This provided several challenges and opportunities to both employees and employers. The reason for carrying this study goes to this new stressful and challenging subject that took over the globe. In this study, the results for the effect of job stress related to the Covid-19 pandemic and employees’ performance in Lebanon will be discussed. The effect of the three main independent stress-building factors were measured that includes: perception of safety, job insecurity, and financial loss, which in return reflect on the dependent variable or factor: employees’ performance in Lebanon. The measurement of inferences of these independent job stressors was accomplished by a Google-form survey, with a structured questionnaire. SPSS was the appropriate procedure used to make the inferences of the outcome. The revelation of the analysis depicts that there was no relationship between the perception of safety and the employees’ performance while there was a significance relationship between job insecurity, financial loss, and performance. The study shows and indicates that to reduce the stress and enhance the performance of employees, wherever possible, specifically during a crisis, working operations need to be organized by employers.

The effects of non-standard employment on subjective well-being

The aim of this review was to address the inconsistency in previous research, on the effect of non-standard employments on subjective well-being, with the use of meta-analysis. This was done by examining the standardised mean difference in global subjective well-being, or whole life well-being, between employees in non-standard employment and permanent employment. The scientific databases Web of Science, Scopus and EBSCOhost were systematically searched for studies on the connection between non-standard employment and subjective well-being. From the initial 1307 results of the systematic literature search, we identified 33 relevant primary studies published since 2004 in a variety of countries throughout the world. Meta-analytic results from a total of 55 independent effect sizes (N = 476454) suggest that employees in non-standard employment experience lower global subjective well-being (d = -0.054) compared to employees in permanent employment. Moderator analyses indicate that if primary studies control for subjective job insecurity or employability, it will remove the statistically significant effect of global subjective well-being between employees in non-standard employment and permanent, resulting in d = -0.054 to d = 0.008 and d = 0.01, respectively. We can therefore conclude that non-standard employments do have a statistical significant small negative effect on global subjective well-being. However, evidence suggest that the negative effect is more due to the subjective perception of job insecurity and employability rather than the objective condition of non-standard employment.

Job Insecurity, Financial Threat, and Mental Health in the COVID-19 Context: The Moderating Role of the Support Network

The aim of this study is two-fold. Firstly, to analyze the relations between the perceptions of job insecurity and financial threat and general mental health during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. And secondly, to identify the potential moderating effect of the support network. We carried out a cross-sectional study on a non-probabilistic sample aimed at a general Chilean adult population to analyze this. The results show that both job insecurity ( β = −.183; p < .001) and financial threat ( β = −.309; p < .001) are associated with a decline in general mental health. Likewise, the results indicated a positive relationship between support network and general mental health in the two models analyzed ( βs = 0.322 and 0.182; ps < 0.001 and = 0.012, respectively), as well as a moderating effect of support network on the relationship between job insecurity and decreased general mental health ( β = .232; p < .001). The theoretical and applied scope of these findings are analyzed, and their challenges and limitations are discussed.

Financial stress, financial literacy, and financial insecurity in India’s informal sector during COVID-19

The lockdowns and restrictions imposed to control COVID-19 have made life miserable for people, especially those involved in informal economic activities. The pandemic induced financial hardships, caused financial anxiety and financial stress among informal sector participants. This study aimed to measure and analyze the financial stress and financial insecurity of one of the important informal sector elements (street vendors) in India. Street vendors in Bangalore were interviewed in this descriptive research through personal interaction and telephonic interviews. The collected primary data were processed using SPSS statistical package. The results have indicated that the pandemic inflicted financial stress on street vendors irrespective of their gender, marital status, age, education, monthly income, and type of product dealt. Financial stress levels varied depending on the number of dependents of street vendors and their business nature. Financial literacy differed according to street vendors’ marital status. A person becomes extremely sensitive and cautious in personal finance matters on getting married. Financial stress and financial literacy correlated negatively. 89.5% of street vendors perceived that they had financial insecurity in the future due to this pandemic. The results indicated that financial stress and financial literacy did not affect financial insecurity perceptions of street vendors. The predictors of financial insecurity have been marital status and the number of dependents of the street vendors (r2: 16.6%). However, marital status alone impacted the 6% variance in financial insecurity. This study concluded that the pandemic caused financial stress and financial insecurity among street vendors, but not financial stress and financial literacy.

A Latent Profile Analysis of Precarity and Its Associated Outcomes: The Haves and the Have-Nots.

A continuing debate on the nature of precarity surrounds its defining characteristics and identification of what constitutes precarity. While early sociological work argued that people either experience precarity or they do not (i.e., the haves and the have-nots), subsequent researchers have gone to great lengths to argue for a more nuanced approach with multiple distinct classes of precarity. Using cross-lagged data from n = 315 U.S. employees collected during the COVID-19 pandemic, we took a person-centered approach to address this central question and uncover latent subpopulations of precarity. Specifically, we conducted a latent profile analysis of precarity using various objective and subjective indicators including perceptions of job insecurity, financial insecurity, prior unemployment experiences, per capita household income, skill-based underemployment, and time-based underemployment. While we anticipated different profiles based on income- vs. employment-based sources of precarity, the best-fitting solution surprisingly comported with Standing’s proposed two-class model. Moreover, membership in the precarious profile was associated with consistently more adverse subsequent outcomes across work, health, and life domains adding to the validity of the obtained two-profile structure. We discuss these results in light of potential loss spirals that can co-occur with the experience of precarity.

Voting for security: evidence from a Maoist-affected region in India

ABSTRACT Do perceptions of insecurity from politically motivated violence affect the decision of poor voters to re-elect incumbents in Indian elections? This article examines this question in the empirical context of the Maoist-affected Junglemahal region in the state of West Bengal in eastern India. Exploiting original survey data collected in 38 Maoist-affected villages in Junglemahal prior to the 2019 Lok Sabha election, I show that respondents (a) were able to discriminate between politically motivated violence and other governance-related issues, (b) were more inclined to vote for the incumbent the greater the importance attached to the provision of public goods, but (c) were less inclined to vote for the incumbent the greater the importance attached to politically motivated violence. In auxiliary tests, I find that the effect of the perceived threat from politically motivated violence was mediated by feelings of fear, anger, and worry about the general direction in which the state was going. I also present evidence showing a positive relationship between the level of campaign contact by the opposition party and the level of negative emotions experienced by voters.

Security or Social Spending? Perceptions of Insecurity, Victimization, and Policy Priorities in Mexico and Brazil

In Latin America, deep social inequalities coexist with persistent, high-level criminal violence. Facing competing needs and budget constraints, citizens in the region have to prioritize among different policy choices. We analyze how perceptions of insecurity and crime victimization shape attitudes toward budgetary priorities in social and security policies. Our analysis relies on original data from Mexico and Brazil, two countries exhibiting increased violence at the national level, albeit with important regional variation. We find that exposure to crime takes its toll on citizens’ policy priorities. In both Mexico and Brazil, citizens who feel insecure seem to prioritize public expenditure on the police over social investment policies. Victims of criminal violence are, however, mostly indifferent as to budgetary allocations across the security and social policy fields, suggesting that their spending priorities might diverge from these two spheres of government action or give rise to policy indifference.

Extractivism and Unjust Food Insecurity for Peru’s Loreto Indigenous Communities

Background. Many scholars have examined Indigenous food security and sovereignty yet the topic still represents a small share of environmental justice scholarship. Therefore, we completed a case study of the environmental justice challenges concerning food security faced by the Indigenous communities of Peru’s Loreto region. Methods. During 2019, we conducted fieldwork in 64 Indigenous communities of Kukama Kukamiria and Urarina in the Amazon rainforests of Loreto, Peru. Based on a semi-stratified sample and snowball sampling method, we combined participant observation with 139 interviews focused on feeding habits, production and availability, access, utilization, food stability, and perception of food insecurity with the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) method. Results. Analyzing these themes led to worrisome assessments of the food insecurity and institutional limits of Indigenous communities. Because of their geographic location, these communities experience a degraded and unhealthy environment with water and food contaminated by hydrocarbon extraction activity. Furthermore, Peru’s policy of food and nutrition security has public management deficiencies especially in the Loreto region. Thus, many of the efforts adopted remain ineffective. Conclusion. Indigenous communities that live following ancestral culture often lack resources to change their diets. Thus, they frequently suffer the most following the contamination of an environment with which they experience an interdependent relation.

Measuring Job Insecurity Perceptions of Hotel Employees and Its’ impact on Job Engagement and Turnover Intention

Measuring Job Insecurity Perceptions of Hotel Employees and Its’ impact on Job Engagement and Turnover Intention

Fear of Losing Jobs during COVID-19: Can Psychological Capital Alleviate Job Insecurity and Job Stress?

Job insecurity is a growing concern among bank employees. In this research, we examined whether psychological capital can alleviate bank workers’ perceptions of job insecurity and job stress during COVID-19. In particular, we aimed to examine this relationship at both the individual and work-unit levels of analysis. Based on the data collected from 520 bank tellers in 53 bank branches in Thailand, our multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM) analyses revealed that there was significant between-branch variation in the levels of psychological capital (15%), job insecurity (23%) and job stress (24%). In particular, perceptions of job insecurity were found to have a positive effect on job stress at both levels of analysis. We also found that psychological capital significantly reduced perceptions of job insecurity and job stress at the individual level. These findings emphasize that perceptions of job insecurity can emerge at both the individual and work-unit levels. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Did Immigrants Perceive More Job Insecurity during the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic? Evidence from German Panel Data

Immigrants have been affected more than native-born ethnic majority populations by the negative economic consequences of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. This contribution examines whether they have also experienced higher levels of perceived job insecurity, reflected in a differential increase in financial concerns and the fear of job loss during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. This empirical study employs the SOEP-CoV survey, which assesses the socio-economic consequences of SARS-CoV-2. It is embedded in the ongoing German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). We present OLS models to compare perceptions of job insecurity across groups, capturing the situation before and during the pandemic. The analyses reveal that first-generation immigrants reported more financial worries, and they perceived a higher chance of job loss than second-generation immigrants and the native-born ethnic majority. This difference in economic concerns emerged only in the pandemic. Despite covering a wide range of conditions signaling objective risk of job loss, as well as individuals’ means and resources for dealing with looming job loss, these disparities persisted in the empirical study. Considering group-membership-related feelings of acceptance and inclusion could provide a promising route for future inquiry that may allow the remaining gap in subjective job insecurity to be accounted for.

The impact of COVID-19 on turnover intention among hotel employees: A moderated mediation model

This study examines the influence of COVID-19 event strength on the turnover intention of hotel employees by incorporating perceived operating performance and job insecurity as mediators and hotel size as a moderator. A moderated mediation model was employed to test the relationship between COVID-19 event strength and turnover intention. The study reveals that COVID-19 event strength might not significantly affect turnover intention through perceived operating performance, likely affecting job insecurity perception. We infer that such a finding might result from a series of policies implemented by authorities to prevent job insecurity perception of hotel employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, we also reveal that small- and middle-sized hotels mitigate the effect of job insecurity on turnover intention somewhat different from our expectations. We infer that most of the entrepreneurs and employees in such hotels are from the same town and unlikely to intensify the effect of job insecurity on turnover intention because of close friendships among them. This finding is closely related to cultural factors in China and has rarely been discussed in the existing literature.