Employment Inecurity Affects Social Alienation

Germany government has adopted several strategies to make their labor market flexible aiming to increase employment rates. However, many experts argue that unemployment can negatively affect social cohesion and even individual well-being. The research question within this article is how employment insecurity affects social alienation. Researchers built three hypotheses.

First, “Social well-being is associated with the extent of labor market integration: unemployed than employed, temporary than permanent, and temporary agency employment than fixed-term employment workers are more likely to suffer social exclusion.”

Second, “The association of labor market integration and social well-being is partially mediated by the economic situation, social resources and social status.”

Lastly, “Individuals who are both affected by employment insecurity and relatively little economic resources shows higher levels of perceived social exclusion than individuals experiencing employment insecurity, but having more economic resources.”

Dependent variables are social exclusion and well-being. Independent variables are the degree of labor market integration (or the degree of employment security) and economic resources.

Data of the empirical analysis is from the household panel study, ‘Labour Market and Social Security’(PASS). They

As hypothesized, the result revealed that the more insecure employment was, the less workers felt affiliated to society regarding to both within and between effects. Also, social well-being is related to the type of employment. While difference of integrative function between workers with fixed-term and permanent contract was small, that of social well-being still existed. Therefore, they suggest that flexible contracts and low wage can deteriorate social exclusion. They also suggest that future studies investigate the relationship of job security and social cohesion with comparative perspective, considering recent situations after the economic