A Distaste for Insecurity: Job Preferences of Young Adults in Different Life Phases

Lin Rouvroye , Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI-KNAW)
Hendrik P. van Dalen, Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI)
Kène Henkens , Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI)
Joop J. Schippers, Utrecht University

This article examines job preferences of young adults, a demographic group regularly confronted with flexible, uncertain types of employment. The empirical focus lies on the effect of the level of job security, as implied by the offered contact type, on the overall evaluation of a job. The study assesses theoretically informed hypotheses about the differential impact of offering insecure employment to young people in different phases of their transition to adulthood. We conducted a factorial survey experiment among a representative sample of 1025 people aged 18-35 years old in the Netherlands in which participants were asked to rate the appeal of hypothetical jobs. The results from the study show that, the lower the offered level of job security, by means of a temporary, agency or on-call contract, the stronger the negative effect on job preferences – measured as the appeal of a job. This finding suggests a general distaste for work arrangements that entail high uncertainty, regardless of age and gender. In line with our predictions, the negative effect of offering an insecure employment contract on job preferences, is stronger for those respondents who have experienced key life events, namely leaving the parental home, the start of a romantic engagement and becoming a parent. This effect is also stronger for respondents as they have aged. These findings corroborate the theoretical assumption that young people’s preference for employment security increases as they transition into adulthood and refutes the idea that young adults are not concerned about working in insecure non-standard employment.

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 Presented in Session 22. Transition to Adulthood