Non-Standard Contingent Employment and Job Satisfaction: The Mediating Role of Job Characteristics

Non-standard contingent employment has become a hallmark of contemporary labour markets, raising widespread concerns regarding job quality and worker well-being. Using job satisfaction as a proxy for well-being, previous studies have generally observed lower levels of satisfaction among contingent workers relative to permanent workers. Substantial heterogeneity nevertheless exists, with self-employed workers often reporting greater levels of satisfaction and casual and labour-hire workers reporting lower levels of satisfaction. We revisit these findings and examine the role of job characteristics in explaining these results. Using data on a wide range of job attributes from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey, we show that contingent employment differs from permanent employment on several dimensions including flexibility and autonomy, skill use and job security. These differences explain previously observed gaps in job satisfaction, suggesting that job characteristics play a crucial mediating role in the relationship between contingent employment and worker well-being.