Changes in employment conditions since the 1980s have been referred to as precarious employment, and terms like flexible, atypical, temporary, part-time, contract, self-employed, irregular, or non-standard employment have also been used. In this essay I review some of the current critiques to the precarious employment construct and advance some potential solutions for its use in epidemiology an...

Maternal Employment and Childhood Obesity in China: Evidence from the China Health and Nutrition Survey Using five waves from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS), we investigate the association between maternal employment and obesity in children aged 3–17 in both rural and urban China. Using BMI and waist circumference as measures for pediatric adiposity, we provide scant evidence for ...

The goal of this study was to offer an expanded conceptualization of the employment continuum and test its utility by examining the association of different employment statuses with physical health and depression. Using data from two large cross-sectional surveys we develop five different employment categories (i.e., "optimal", "economically good", "psychologically good", "barely adequate", and...

BACKGROUND Lone parents and their children experience higher than average levels of adverse health and social outcomes, much of which are explained by high rates of poverty. Many high income countries have attempted to address high poverty rates by introducing employment requirements for lone parents in receipt of welfare benefits. However, there is evidence that employment may not reduce pover...

OBJECTIVES Negative associations between non-employment and health among older people are well established and are potentially important for successful ageing. However, opportunities to improve health through re-employment or extending working lives are limited as later-life exits from employment are often unwanted and permanent. We aim to establish a greater understanding of the psychosocial m...

This paper investigates the relationship between health shocks and labour market outcomes in 9 European countries using the European Community Household Panel. Matching techniques are used to control for the non-experimental nature of the data. The results suggest that there is a significant causal effect from health on the probability of employment: individuals who incur a health shock are sig...

This paper considers the potential effects of the government's Welfare to Work policy on general practitioner (GP) working patterns, and aims to explore the relationship between unemployment, ill health, and GP sickness certification. Social security and employment policy initiatives are discussed in relation to the literature on the relationship between unemployment and ill health, sociologica...

What role does self-employment play in the retirement process? Older Americans are staying in the labor force longer than prior trends would have predicted and many change jobs later in life. These job transitions are often within the same occupation or across occupations within wageand-salary employment. The transition can also be out of wage-and-salary work and into self employment. Indeed, n...

The 'working poor' may not exceed the poverty threshold despite full-time (or even double) employment. The general relationship between poverty and illness is understood, but little is known about specific health implications of the 'working poor' status. The proportion of 'working poor' is increasing in Germany. Poverty-related health problems occur because of a lower standard of nutrition and...

BACKGROUND The positive benefits of paid employment for individuals with mental health needs are well known yet many still remain unemployed (Perkins & Rinaldi, (2002). Unemployment rates among patients with long-term mental health problems: A decade of rising unemployment. Psychiatric Bulletin, 26(8), 295-298.). AIMS Attitudes of employers and employment agencies that may provide short-term ...