Job Insecurity and Stress: Gender Differences in the Credit Crunch Recession Dr Brendan Burchell bb101@cam.ac.uk Department of Sociology University of Cambridge, UK Thanks to Nurjk Agloni for research and graphics

The Claims The real victims of this credit crunch? Women The Daily Telegraph March 4th Harriet Harman: Women more worried about economy than men The Observer, Jan 18 The real victims of this credit crunch? Women The Sunday Times January 25, 2009 Women losing jobs twice as fast as men Independent, Jan 26 According to latest official employment figures, over the last quarter the number of women in full-time jobs fell by 53,000, while the number for men was 36,000.

Overview Definitions of Job Insecurity Job Insecurity: Gender Differences:- I. Who will lose their jobs? II. Who is worried about losing their jobs? III. Who think they will lose their jobs? IV. Who will suffer psychologically if they are insecure? Shock vs chronic consequences

1. Definitions of Job Insecurity

1 Subjective perception of risk of job loss (Cognitive) Definitions of job insecurity 1 Subjective perception of risk of job loss (Cognitive) 2 Level of worry about job loss (affective) 3 Objective decline in Employment / Redundancy Rate 4 Prevalence of temporary contracts (low, irrelevant) 5 Average tenure (unrelated to insecurity)

I. Who will lose their jobs?

“According to latest official employment figures, over the last quarter the number of women in full-time jobs fell by 53,000, while the number for men was 36,000”. Keeping things in perspective: Drop of 56,000/15M, 0.4%

Quarterly Redundancies 1995-2008, per 1,000 Who will lose their job? Quarterly Redundancies 1995-2008, per 1,000

Quarterly Redundancies by Gender, per 1,000 Who will lose their job? Quarterly Redundancies by Gender, per 1,000

Who will lose their job?

Who will lose their job?

III.Who is worried about losing their jobs?

Who is worried about losing their jobs? Source: Populus January 2009 Question: “I am going to read out some things that different people have identified as worrying aspects of Britain's economic downturn. For each one I read out please say how concerned you are, using a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 means it doesn't worry you at all and 100 means it worries you a very great deal “

Who is worried about losing their jobs Source: Populus Question: “I am going to read out some things that different people have identified as worrying aspects of Britain's economic downturn. For each one I read out please say how concerned you are, using a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 means it doesn't worry you at all and 100 means it worries you a very great deal “

Gendered Response Styles√? Women are more averse to risk√? Why do women report more worry about losing their jobs? Three Hypotheses Gendered Response Styles√? Women are more averse to risk√? Women’s are going to suffer more in the recession XX

II. Who think they will lose their jobs?

European Working Conditions Survey 2005 Q: Losing job in next 6 months Who thinks that they will lose their jobs? European Working Conditions Survey 2005 Q: Losing job in next 6 months No gender difference in EU or UK European Social Survey 2006 Q: Losing job and becoming Unemployed in 12 months (see also Erlinghagen (2008) ESR for 2004-2005 – no gender differences)

IV. Who will suffer if they are insecure?

Who will suffer if they are insecure?

Who will suffer if they are insecure?

3. Shock vs chronic consequences of job insecurity

Figure 1. The chronology of unemployment and stress Shock vs chronic consequences Figure 1. The chronology of unemployment and stress Start of spell Recovery, or coping Low point

Shock vs chronic consequences Chronic Job Insecurity and Psychological Well – Being in the 1990s recession (Burchell, 2008)

Shock vs chronic consequences Chronic Job Insecurity and Psychological Well – Being in the 1990s recession (Burchell, 2008)

Shock vs chronic consequences Figure 2. The effect of job insecurity on Psychological wellbeing over time. Secure Shock at first perception of insecurity Chronic decline Recovery from shock

Men experience higher levels of involuntary job loss than women Conclusions: Gender Men experience higher levels of involuntary job loss than women In past two recessions, Male unemployment rose much faster than Female unemployment All evidence so far suggests more similarity than difference in the current recession. Women report higher levels of worry about losing their jobs, but also about all other aspects of the economy The Vacancies Data suggest that he real losers will be entrants to the labour markets – e.g. school leavers, career-break returners.

Conclusions: General Many studies show that job insecurity is a significant threat to employee wellbeing (even if they never lose their jobs). Some studies show this effect is larger for men than women, but Household/Breadwinner Status probably more important than Gender per se. Effects extend to families. Recently many employees have gone through a “shock” phase of job insecurity. Chronic job insecurity over more than one year is much worse. Will this recession be different from previous recessions? Different industries, higher female employment? Government proactive in attempting to cope with insecurity and unemployment. “in these early days the Government has power to shape both the impact of this recession and to build a path to recovery that creates a fairer and stronger economy. Government has a choice as to how workers’ rights are treated during the downturn.” Fawcett Society.