Job Insecurity Research is Still Alive and Kicking Twenty Years Later: A Commentary

Abstract

This paper comments on the review of longitudinal job insecurity studies in this special issue. The main conclusion of that review, namely that job insecurity leads to poor health and well-being, remains undisputed. It is argued, however, that future job insecurity research should focus more on: (a) uncovering the underlying psychological mechanisms of job insecurity; (b) the effects of new forms of labor contracts; (c) differences across nations as a function of different social security systems; and (d) the effects of organisations. It is concluded that job insecurity is a problem of our time and that 20 years after the publication of Dekker and Schaufeli's study on job insecurity among workers in Australian public transport corporation, psychological job insecurity research is still alive and kicking.