Precarious Knowledge Work? The Combined Effect of Occupational Unemployment and Flexible Employment on Job Insecurity

Job insecurity affects individual well-being and organisational performance. Many studies show correlation between job insecurity and flexible employment. However, whether flexible contracts inevitably contribute to precarious employment, independently of other factors, is less clear. Here, we investigate the impact of employment flexibility on job insecurity among knowledge workers, depending on the unemployment rate in their occupations. Logistic models, estimated using a large sample of workers, showed that job insecurity among temporary workers in occupations with low unemployment does not differ significantly from job insecurity among permanent workers. Occupational unemployment adversely affects only temporary knowledge workers, while permanent workers are uninfluenced.