Well-being, job satisfaction and labour mobility

I investigate whether two indicators of job-related well-being predict subsequent quitting. I find that both the Depression–Enthusiasm scale and the Anxiety–Comfort scale predict quitting, the former more strongly, and this contributes an element of criterion validity to their use as welfare measures. However, overall job satisfaction, which implicitly captures well-being relative to outside job opportunities, predicts job mobility better than either the Depression–Enthusiasm or the Anxiety–Comfort scale. I also find asymmetric effects: relative to intermediate levels, low well-being or job satisfaction are associated with greater quitting, yet high well-being or job satisfaction are not significantly associated with reduced quitting.