Precarious Employment among Millennials in the United States

Abstract

It is well established that employment conditions are a key determinant of health, including mental health. Research conducted in the wake of deindustrialization and the onset of neoliberal reforms—reforms that significantly weakened the collective bargaining power of workers—has consistently shown that job loss, perceived job insecurity, and temporary employment increase the risk of depression, anxiety, and psychological distress. The secular erosion of standard employment relationships compounded by specific exigencies introduced by the Great Recession (2007-2009) has resulted in a concerning rise in precarious employment: employment forms characterized by stagnant wages, irregular working hours, and lack of fringe benefits are now the norm rather than the exception. This dramatic change in the conditions of employment has been especially challenging for Millennials, many of whom were entering the workforce at the time of the Great Recession and experienced high levels of unemployment. As the converging challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, technological advances, and inequality threaten to further destabilize Millennials’ participation in the labor market, research is needed to better understand the interplay between precarious employment and mental health as well as risk and protective factors for mental wellbeing. To date, few studies examining the health implications of precarious employment have focused on young adults. Moreover, research on the relationship between job precarity and mental health has relied primarily on cross-sectional studies. This dissertation contributes to this literature, leveraging nationally representative panel data from the Panel Study on Income Dynamics to 1) identify subgroups of precarious employment (PE) trajectories among Millennials residing in the United States following the Great Recession (2009-2019); 2) examine associations between PE trajectory subgroups and mental distress; and 3) explore the moderating role of social welfare benefits on the relationship between PE and mental distress. A total of 1303 Millennial respondents were included in the study. Growth mixture models identified three subgroups of PE trajectories across the study period: nearly three-quarters of respondents belonged a subgroup experiencing stagnant employment quality, a second subgroup (16% of the sample) faced declining employment quality, while a third subgroup (12% of respondents) enjoyed steadily rising employment quality. Millennials in the negative EQ growth class compared to the low- and high-growth subgroups were more likely to have lower levels of educational attainment; to be divorced, separated, or widowed; to be low-skill, white- or low-skill, blue-collar workers; and to have mothers with less than a high school level of education. With respect to the relationship between precarious employment and psychological distress, mixed-effects logistic regression models revealed that fewer years of education and widowed/divorced/separated marital status (compared to married/cohabitating status) were associated with higher odds of severe psychological distress. Models examining moderate psychological distress outcomes, meanwhile, demonstrated that Millennials who were younger, female, experiencing declining EQ over time, and single/never married or divorced/separated/widowed had higher odds of endorsing symptoms of moderate mental distress. Contrary to expectations, none of the three social welfare policies—minimum wage, state EITC rate, and state unemployment insurance replacement rate—conferred a moderating effect on the relationship between EQ and psychological distress. These findings have important implications for social work research, policy, and practice. Beyond filling an important gap in our understanding of the ways in which the shifting landscape of work contributes to young adults’ mental health, the study’s attention to the moderating role of social welfare policies on the association between PE and mental wellbeing should serve as a stepping stone for future research aimed at elucidating policies that can best protect the mental health of workers in a political and economic climate marked by accelerating technological change and rising labor contentiousness.