Recent studies have suggested that rising rates of suicide, drug poisoning and alcohol related mortality – sometimes referred to as “deaths of despair” – may in part be related to broad socioeconomic conditions, including the labour market trend toward increasingly precarious, or insecure, work.
New research prompted by the insights of those studies investigates whether job quality - measured in terms of employment stability, hours and wages – is also a risk factor for suicide, drug poisoning, and alcohol-attributable deaths.
The research drew on census data and death records from 2.8 million working aged Canadians. The researchers used three indicators to sort the data by the quality of their employment: hours, employment stability, and earnings. Analysis of the data identified groups of respondents with similar employment conditions, from which respondents were sorted into one of five categories of job quality:
- Standard employment – secure employment with favourable employment conditions. Includes full-time hours, stable year-round employment and high earnings.
- Portfolio employment – demanding but secure conditions. Relatively stable year-round employment, high earnings, and hours exceeding 49 per week.
- Intermittent employment – modest income in seasonal or irregular jobs. Sporadic and unstable.
- Marginal employment – underemployed or working outside their field or qualifications. Limited hours and lower than average earnings.
- Precarious employment – insecure, low-wage jobs. Lack of full-time hours, high degree of instability, lowest earnings of all groups.
The researchers found some age-related difference in data patterns as well as some nuance around the findings relating to men and women. “Women are more likely to have to balance multiple, competing demands at work and at home,” say researchers. “Gender-based pressures in the labour market may explain why we are seeing these differences in how strongly job quality is linked to suicide and substance use-related deaths.” Furthermore, other gendered stressors – such as sexual and gender discrimination in the workplace – may be more prevalent in precarious employment.
The data showed that women in precarious employment had 2.4 times the risk of suicide, 3.6 times the risk of fatal drug poisoning and 1.8 times the risk of alcohol attributable deaths, compared to those in standard employment.
Men in precarious employment showed 1.7 time the risk of suicide, 2.7 times the risk of fatal drug poisoning and 2.2 times the risk of alcohol-attributable death.
Overall, the research indicates that individuals in lower quality employment experience greater rates of suicide, drug poisoning, and alcohol-attributable deaths.
Insecure work, while not yet recognised by WorkSafe as a psychosocial hazard, is recognised as a common workplace hazard. The most effective way to address issues of insecure work is to unionise your workplace and fight for casual conversion clauses in enterprise bargaining agreements. Union members are more likely to be in permanent part-time or full-time roles.
In summarising their work researchers said, “This study reminds us that the quality of one’s work matters, not just whether one has a job.” This research highlights “the continuing need for policies to focus on ensuring that the jobs we create are of good quality.