Jay Stewart

Did Job Security Decline in the 1990s? Jay Stewart

There has been a growing interest, both among the popular press and among researchers,in whether job stability and security have declined in recent years. The popular perception isthat jobs were less stable and less secure in the 1980s than in the 1970s and that this decline instability and security continued into the 1990s. So far, the evidence from academic studiesindicates that job stability did not decline between the mid 1970s and the early 1990s, but thatthere have been changes for some groups. Job stability declined among men, primarily due todeclining stability among high school dropouts. Stability decreased slightly among high tenure workers. For women with at least a high school diploma, job stability has increased significantly.