This book has analyzed the link between objective and subjective job insecurity along the life courses of individuals. While objective job insecurity had been investigated extensively in previous literature, subjective job insecurity had comparatively received lesser attention. In empirical terms, analyzing job insecurity poses a challenge, given that its nature is multidimensional and it is influenced by a complex set of factors at different levels, individual and collective. Earlier research has either looked on objective or subjective job insecurity separately. We addressed the two dimensions in their own specificity, but also analysed the interplay between objective and subjective factors. We could thus additionally highlight inconsistencies between the two dimensions and their relative incidence. Only in this way can we provide a complete picture of job insecurity across welfare states.

In this book, we have combined quantitative and qualitative data to investigate different aspects of objective and subjective insecurity and to link the two dimensions. The results show that the process that leads to the formation of subjective job insecurity is linked both to macro level factors, associated with the characteristics of the institutional context in which individuals live, and to micro level factors, linked to the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the individuals which ultimately affect objective conditions and subjective perceptions. Among these features, the macro level of protection of the specific welfare state regime and the individual's perception of their situation with respect to their peers and the previous generation emerge as key drivers to a condition of job insecurity.

The book started with a definition of the field of analysis, providing an overview of existing definitions of objective and subjective employment insecurity (Chapter 1). Along with definitions, the chapter looked at the evolution of theoretical and empirical studies in the field, from the classics to more recent literature dealing with both the macro and micro level factors influencing objective and subjective job insecurity. Based on this overview we elaborated an analytic framework about how the two dimensions vary in relation to institutional characteristics at the macro level, but also how they vary in accordance with different individual characteristics, including age, education and gender.