Accumulation of Employment Instability Among Partners—Evidence from Six EU Countries

Abstract

Growing employment insecurity has stimulated much research in social science, most of which describes the characteristics of insecure employment and investigates the career consequences for individuals. However, the consequences of insecure employment are moderated by the household context. Relatively little is known about the accumulation or compensation of insecure labour situation on the household level. We investigate if the household/family is able to compensate for market risks, most importantly unemployment or unstable employment, cushioning negative effects through a partner providing a stable income, or whether instead patterns of risk accumulation prevail. We use EU labour force surveys from 1992 to 2010 for six European countries, analysing the household employment situations, the partner’s effect on an individual’s employment situation, and possible mechanisms behind this. Evidence is provided for accumulation of risks in all six countries.