Job Insecurity Increases Depression

From our friends in Canada at CTV.ca:

Workers on temporary or part-time contracts don't just have budget shortfalls to worry about. New Canadian research suggests that workers who do not have job security will develop more physical and mental health problems compared to their full-time counterparts.

Research conducted by Dr. Charles Muntaner from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto found that job insecurity can lead to anxiety and depression, which can then cause cardiovascular and other physical ailments.

• Workers with precarious employment status are three to four times more likely to develop some form of mental illness.
• Workers who have high-demand but low-control jobs that offer few rewards are at greater risk for depression, anxiety disorders and substance abuse problems.

"On average, these types of employment conditions give a lot of flexibility to the employer but create a huge amount of insecurity, psychological anxiety and symptoms of depression among the workers because they don't know when they are going to lose their job or when they're going to find another one," Muntaner, the psychiatric and addictions nursing research chair at CAMH, told CTV.ca.

The anxiety and depression that temporary workers may develop can then lead to a variety of physical ailments, such as heart problems and compromised immune systems, Muntaner said.

Companies trying to compete in a growing global marketplace are reducing labour and manufacturing costs, the WHO report says. This means that employers are more likely to offer new workers part-time or contract work that does not include benefits.

As well, many employees in low- or middle-income countries earn a living in an "informal economy, which by its nature is precarious and characterized by a lack of statutory regulation to protect working conditions, wages, occupational health and safety and injury insurance."

The problems are more common in countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, where there is greater tolerance for employment inequities, Muntaner said.

The findings are included in a World Health Organization study called "Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health Equity through Action on the Social Determinants of Health."