Secure Employment Reduces Premature Death Risk
Written by Arushi Sharma, Susi
In a world where job security is highly valued, recent research has uncovered a significant and often overlooked benefit of secure employment: a reduced risk of premature death.
According to a study published in The Journal of Epidemiology and Community Reports by the Karolinska Institute, finding permanent employment can reduce the risk of premature death by 20% for people who do not have stable job contracts.
The study emphasizes the need for increased job security in Sweden, where precarious employment, defined by short contracts, low wages, and a lack of influence and rights, leads to an unpredictable and insecure working life.
The researchers in this study looked at how this affects the risk of death.
The paper’s last author Theo Bodin, assistant professor at the Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet says, “This is the first study to show that changing from precarious employment to secure employment can reduce the risk of death. It’s the same as saying that the risk of early death is higher if one keeps working in jobs without a secure employment contract.”
The study relied on registry data spanning 2005 to 2017, encompassing more than 250,000 workers aged 20 to 55 in Sweden. It specifically examined individuals transitioning from insecure to secure employment conditions.
Those who made this transition experienced a 20% lower risk of death, regardless of subsequent developments, compared to those who stayed in insecure employment. Furthermore, if individuals maintained secure employment for 12 years, their risk of death decreased by 30%
“Using this large population database allowed us to take account of many factors that could influence mortality, such as age, other diseases that workers can suffer from or life changes like divorce,” explains Nuria Matilla-Santander, assistant professor at the same
“Because this could be relatively certain that the difference in mortality is due to the precariousness of employment rather than individual factors. “She continues: “The results are important since they show that the elevated mortality rate observed in workers can be avoided. If we reduce precariousness in the labour market, we can avoid premature deaths in Sweden.”
Dr. Matilla-Santander plans to investigate mortality causes further. The study received primary funding from the Swedish Research Council for Health, with no conflicts of interest reported.