Job Insecurity and Subjective Well-Being in Russia and Germany

The paper deals with the issue of job insecurity and job instability in Russia and Germany. We examine how job instability (measured through tenure) and job insecurity (measured as a subjective indicator) affect subjective well-being in post-communist countries with transition economies like Russia and East Germany. The analysis covers the period 1995-2005 and is based on two nationally representative and highly comparable household surveys, - the German Socio-Economic Panel and Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey. The results are highly relevant for formulating social policies in these countries in terms of regulating temporary jobs and precarious employment. Panel regression analysis allows us to speak about causal links between job insecurity and life satisfaction, controlling for all other factors. The main outcome is that under great dramatic economic shocks those people with longer tenure are more likely to worry about losing their jobs and have lower levels of well-being.

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