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K-State Today

November 5, 2013

American ethnic studies professor publishes article on cross-national differences on employment insecurity in the European Union

Submitted by Dwanna L. Robertson

Dwanna L. Robertson

Dwanna L. Robertson, assistant professor of American ethnic studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, recently co-published the article "Cross-National Differences in Workers' Perceived Job, Labour Market, and Employment Insecurity in Europe: Empirical Tests and Theoretical Extensions" in the European Sociological Review.

The article examines 27 European Union, or EU, countries on three levels of cross-national variation in workers' perceived insecurity: How secure workers feel about keeping their jobs for the next 12 months, or job insecurity, their immediate labor market opportunities if they are laid off, or labor market insecurity, and the combination of the two, or employment insecurity. The authors anticipated that worker insecurity would be greater in countries with higher unemployment and lower unionization. However, the study also found all three levels of worker insecurity substantively greater among countries with lower rates of part-time work, socialist traditions and higher levels of perceived government corruption, which might be a product of EU integration that opened up labor market opportunities outside workers' home countries.

The abstract to Robertson's article is online.