The relationship between employment quality and work-related well-being in the European Labor Force

• A typology of contemporary employment arrangements is constructed.
• The relationship between the typology and employees' work-related well-being is studied.
• The job types show clear relations with job satisfaction, perceived safety climate and ability to stay in employment.
• The job types show clear relations with overall work-related well-being.
• Questions are raised about the long-term sustainability of some contemporary employment arrangements.

In this article, data from the 2005 European Working Conditions Survey are used to examine the relationship between contemporary employment arrangements and the work-related well-being of European employees. By means of a Latent Class Cluster Analysis, several features of the employment conditions and relations characterizing jobs are combined in a typology of five employment arrangements: SER-like, instrumental, precarious unsustainable, precarious intensive and portfolio jobs. These job types show clear relationships with separate indicators of job satisfaction, perceived safety climate and the ability to stay in employment, as well as with an overall indicator for work-related well-being. The findings from this multifaceted approach towards employment quality raise questions about the long-term sustainability of highly flexible and de-standardized employment arrangements.