Traversing the flexible turn: US workers’ perceptions of job security, 1977–2002

This paper utilizes data from the General Social Survey from 1977 to 2002 to investigate trends in and determinants of US workers’ perceptions of job security. We find that perceived job security is impacted at the individual level by demographic factors such as race, age, education, earnings, part-time status, and occupation. With regard to age, our findings point to an increased sense of perceived insecurity at mid-career, which is contrary to previous research. This effect is distinctive from cohort effects and the linear effects of time, which we control for in the models. After controlling for unemployment, we find that perceived job security has declined over time. Further analysis suggests that this trend is largely due to the “flexible turn” in the labor market over the past quarter century, which has contributed to a heightened sense of vulnerability among workers in the new economy.