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Public Sector Workers and Job Security
Abstract
One issue that comes up in discussions of compensation of state/local workers is their job security relative
to that of workers in the private sector. Several questions arise in this regard. How much more secure are public sector jobs? Has their relative security declined in the Great Recession? Do different types
of public sector workers fare differently? And how should greater job security be incorporated in the calculus of relative compensation? This brief addresses these issues.
The discussion proceeds as follows. The first section presents data on the employment of state/local workers and private sector workers over the last three business cycles. It indicates that, despite declines in
employment that have not yet fully abated, state/local workers fared somewhat better relative to private sector workers during this recession than in the past. The second section presents regression results on the
relative job layoff experience of state/local workers between 1990-2007 and 2008-12, which quantifies the
difference in job security between state/local workers and private sector workers in the two periods. The third section looks at teachers, non-teacher state workers, and non-teacher local workers separately to see how their employment levels have varied over time. At first, it looks like teachers fared better than non teachers, but the regression analysis, which focuses on layoffs and controls for education, shows that teachers have no more job security than other public employees. The fourth section briefly discusses alternative ways of thinking about job security in the context of relative compensation considerations.
The final section concludes that – due to the nature of the public sector – state/local workers have
historically had greater job security than private sector workers, and that relationship continued through the
Great Recession. Some argue that job security should be quantified and added to comparisons of public
and private compensation. Our view is that while job security is attractive, other non-monetary factors
make public sector jobs less attractive. Even if these negative factors are ignored, however, estimates of
the value of job security suggest that it is not large enough to overturn the conclusion that state/local and
private sector workers receive about the same compensation.
... Unfortunately, in Malaysia, agribusiness entrepreneurship is the least favoured career choice among Generation Y because they believe to pursue a better and secure career in the public sector, although the current situation in this sector sees fewer vacancies. This statement is supported by Munnell and Fraenkel (2013), stating that due to the environment of the public sector, employees have traditionally perceived this sector to provide better job security than private sector employees or those who are self-employed. Until today, very few empirical evidences exist documenting the role of entrepreneurial education as a moderator on the relationship between job security and agribusiness entrepreneurial intention among young generation. ...
Agribusiness entrepreneurship has become an important component for economic development due to its significant role in creating job opportunity and improving the livelihood of a community. This study aims to investigate the role of perceived social status, job security on agribusiness entrepreneurial intention as well as to examine the moderating role of entrepreneurial education. Quantitative research design was applied using university students as the sample. The result of this study demonstrated that moderating effects of entrepreneurial education on the relationship between perceived social status and agribusiness entrepreneurial intention was not established, thus, called for exploring this moderating effect in other contexts. However, this study revealed that entrepreneurial education moderates the relationship between job security and agribusiness entrepreneurial intention. As an implication to the policy, the government needs to promote agribusiness entrepreneurship as a money-spinning career and uplift the status of agribusiness in aiming to attract the Gen Y to participate in this sector.
... The lay-off rate of workers in the private sector was found to be significantly higher than those in the public sector in this study. This situation can be attributed to the fact that job security in the public sector is higher than in the private sector (23,24). Accordingly, it is stated that public sector employees have better health outcomes than those working in the private sector and this relationship is highly dependent on job (in) security (25). ...
... Frequently, most public servants maintain their motivation to work in public service mainly because of job security (Munnell & Cannon Fraenkel, 2013) and clearly structured pay scale (Talmage, 2018) in the government office. However, job security, as well as comfort at the office, could also mean difficulties to enhance motivation in public service due to complacency at the workplace (Re'em, 2011). ...
... Frequently, most public servants maintain their motivation to work in public service mainly because of job security (Munnell & Cannon Fraenkel, 2013) and clearly structured pay scale (Talmage, 2018) in the government office. However, job security, as well as comfort at the office, could also mean difficulties to enhance motivation in public service due to complacency at the workplace (Re'em, 2011). ...
The quality of public service is very much depending on the motivation level of public servants. Even though career motivation is one of the important aspects of the public service, only a few studies were conducted to cover this topic. Most studies on public servants were conducted to address public service motivation rather than career motivation. Therefore, this article is an attempt to delve into the meaning of career motivation in public service as well as some common issues related to the level of career motivation among public servants. The enhancement of career motivation level could mean the major improvement of the quality of the public service. The arguments were arranged to highlight on the key findings from the previous studies that have been conducted on career motivation among public servants to serve as a contribution to the body of knowledge in the area of career motivation in human resource management in public service. The authors also investigated the role of social support on career motivation level among public servants. It was suggested from previous literature that focusing on social support could enhance career motivation among employees. To conclude, some suggestions for future studies were also conferred in this article.
... According to Felstead et al. (2013), between 1992 and 2012, the percentage of jobs requiring hard work rose much more markedly in the public than in the private sector. On the other hand, public employees have historically had lower job mobility and higher job security than private sector workers, and this difference has persisted in recent years (Munnell and Fraenkel, 2013). Job-related as well as career-related decision-making demands and learning demands may thus have increased less in the public sector than in the private sector in recent years. ...
Purpose
In order to understand the driving forces behind intensified job demands (IJDs), the purpose of this paper is to examine demographic factors, structural work-related factors, personal and job resources as antecedents of IJDs.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on cross-sectional (n=4,963) and longitudinal (n=2,055) quantitative data sets of Austrian employees. Data sets were analyzed via regression analyses.
Findings
The results showed that IJDs, as assessed through five sub-dimensions: work intensification, intensified job-related, career-related planning and decision-making demands, intensified demands for skills and for knowledge-related learning, remained fairly stable overtime. The most consistent antecedents of IJDs were personal initiative and ICT use at work. Job resources, e.g. variety of tasks and lacking support from supervisor, related to four sub-dimensions of IJDs.
Research limitations/implications
The findings suggest that personal (being initiative) and job resources (task variety) may have negative effects as they associated with IJDs. Moreover, supervisors’ support is crucial to counteract IJDs.
Practical implications
Employers should recognize that certain personal (e.g. personal initiative) and job-related resources (e.g. lacking supervisory support) might implicate higher IJDs, which, in turn, may cause more job strain as IJDs can be conceived as job stressors.
Originality/value
IJDs have received very little research attention because they are new job demands, which however, can be expected to increase in future due to faster technological acceleration in working life. The study has methodological value as longitudinal design was applied.
... The foregoing suggests that the positive opinion expressed by the extension workers for work in the public sector despite their dissatisfaction with work benefits and salaries is not unlikely to be linked to assurance of job security in the public sector. This position has been affirmed in the literature that staff turnover rate is higher in the private than in the public organizations (Munnell and Fraenke, 2013). The finding that 81.5% of extension supervisors engage somehow in extra official activities and most (66.7%) ...
Supervisory responsibilities when performed as a routine may unsuspectingly vie off from the expected standards and jeopardize organizational goals. The need to evaluate how extension services in Nigeria fares in this regard prompted this study on use of standard supervision practices among agricultural extension supervisors in southwestern Nigeria. Using a multi-stage sampling procedure, data were collected through interview schedule from 54 extension supervisors and 81 extension workers in Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) and Fadama establishments. Data were summarized using descriptive statistics such as mean and percentages. Correlation tool was used to test the hypotheses. Supervisors from ADP (65%) had better job satisfaction than their counterparts (50%) from Fadama. A fairly positive perception of supervision exists among extension supervisees in the two establishments. Index of use of standard supervision practices was above average among 53.7% of the extension supervisors. However, 92.9% of Fadama supervisors complied with standard practices compared with only 40% from ADP. Apart from resistance to change by the extension agents, most of other critical constraints faced by supervisors in using standard practices were government centered. Significant improvement in compliance to standard supervision practices is achievable if efforts are made to improve staffing and reduce supervisors work load.
It is well-documented that childhood socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with various health conditions in adulthood. Here, we examine the extent to which childhood SES is associated with COVID-19 pandemic anxiety and depression. Participants (n = 212), recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk, were assessed for depression and anxiety in February 2022 for both the current context and retrospective self-perceived early pandemic depression and anxiety (April 2020). Participants also reported childhood SES and current demographics. Consistent with predated findings, we show a strong, positive correlation between depression and anxiety under both conditions. Paternal unemployment in childhood was associated with increased anxiety, while maternal occupation was not. High household education in childhood was generally associated with greater anxiety and depression, similar to past studies examining education levels and depression. However, the shift from high school to post-secondary degrees (trade school and associate’s) was associated with decreased anxiety and depression, which may reflect “essential work” careers, therefore indicating a dualism. Growing up in crowded, de-individualized spaces was associated with lower anxiety and depression, suggesting better conditioning for the imposition of COVID-19 quarantines. Pandemic-related unemployment was associated with an increase in anxiety and depression. Strong political views, regardless of ideology, were associated with increased anxiety. Finally, participants in our cohort perceived their mental health to be worse in the early pandemic for anxiety and depression, up 6.6% and 7.9%, respectively. Our work suggests a complex relationship between SES, demographics, and anxiety and depression during the pandemic. These findings emphasize the importance of exploring the dynamics between early SES and mental health in adulthood, particularly during extended societal stressors.
This paper examines how short-term variation in potential teachers’ outside options affects who chooses to teach in public schools. I use variation in state level unemployment rates as a source of plausibly exogenous variation in outside options available to first-year teachers among teachers surveyed in the NCES School and Staffing Survey. I find that those who become teachers when the local labor market is weak are both more likely to have come from highly selective colleges and more likely to express dissatisfaction with their jobs. Other observable demographic, educational, and certification characteristics of newly hired teachers are not affected. Teachers who enter during weaker labor markets are also no less likely to remain in teaching in the short run. Economic downturns provide a potential opportunity for schools to attract and retain academically talented workers, but this may come at a cost to those workers in the form of reduced job satisfaction.
This study applies the job strain model (JDC-S) to social trust to analyse how workplace characteristics influence social trust formation patterns. By defining the ‘workplace’ as consisting of (a) workload, (b) control and (c) social support, the JDC-S model predicts job demands to inversely relate to social trust, whereas job control and social support to positively affect trust among the employed. We utilise the sample of 60,250 respondents from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) to operationalise the three components and link them to social trust scores. Our analysis provides strong empirical evidence that the three factors are not only associated with trust among employed individuals, but that their impact is also contingent on the respondents’ sex and age.
Research examining commuting-related phenomena remains a key area of geographical research. And although substantial research has attempted to explore the relationships between transportation and land use, little is known about how the impacts of major economic changes such as the Great Recession would affect related commuting dynamics. In addition, commuting studies examining the plight of workers in private versus the public sectors are also virtually non-existent, though the two-groups' commuting dynamics would potentially be affected very differently by the Great Recession. This study contributes to a better understanding of commuting and jobs-housing balance during the Great Recession. We employ metrics from the excess commuting and jobs-housing balance literature in an effort to examine the commuting dynamics of private and public sector workers, with a focus on the time period around the Great Recession. Our analysis is conducted for the Atlanta, GA Metropolitan area. Findings of the study are that private workers experienced better jobs-housing balance over the study period, but they commute longer and more inefficiently when compared with public workers. While the Great Recession worsened both groups' commuting situation, the effect was more significant for public workers in terms of increasing their travel burdens. Since the public sector response to the Great Recession was delayed, policy implications suggest monitoring employment trends during and after economic shocks and recognizing the transportation disadvantages public sector workers may face in future crises.
En los últimos años, Ecuador ha tenido que experimentar una caída importante del precio de su principal commodity de exportación, evento que evidentemente afectó las finanzas públicas, provocó una caída de las tasas de crecimiento económico e indirectamente generó alteraciones en el mercado laboral. En ese sentido, con el propósito de analizar cuán dependiente es Ecuador a sus productos primarios, el artículo expone y destaca las relaciones existentes entre los precios de algunos de sus commodities de exportación versus el desempleo y subempleo (en tasas) y el salario mínimo real. Adicionalmente, dentro de las estimaciones para las variables laborales mencionadas, el estudio utiliza algunas determinantes convencionales y provee de evidencia empírica de cada una de ellas. Los resultados, de manera general, enfatizan el rol del precio de los commodities en la determinación del desempleo y el salario mínimo, mas no para el caso del subempleo. Se destaca también, para el desempleo, la importancia de la productividad laboral existente. Mientras tanto, en el subempleo no se puede dejar de lado el efecto negativo salario mínimo real (cuya relación es bidireccional) y la relación positiva y muy significativa de las remesas. Finalmente, cabe preponderar el rol de democracia institucionalizada en la determinación del salario mínimo, particularmente en el período post-dolarización. Coincidente con la literatura económica, se destaca también el efecto que tiene la demografía ecuatoriana en su mercado laboral.
Policymakers face significant liabilities with traditional defined benefit (DB) plans in the government. Unlike defined contribution (DC) plans, the fiscal risks under DB plans are borne by the plan sponsors, that is, state and local governments, and ultimately taxpayers. The Great Recession heightened pension solvency concerns in many jurisdictions, necessitating a reconsideration of their retirement systems. Drawing on Florida municipalities' plans from 2006 to 2012, we develop an index of pension change and track its evolution. Findings reveal a preponderance of incremental change and suggest the lack of significant change may be a function of high financial costs and status quo bias.
Defined benefit plans pay pension benefits from retirement until death. Thus, the longer workers live, the higher the expense for the plan. On average, states and localities assume their workers will live slightly than longer private sector workers. This brief asks a simple question: do state and local workers actually live longer on average than their private sector counterparts? If so, why?
The discussion proceeds as follows. The first section explains the nature and limitations of the available data – the National Longitudinal Mortality Study. The second section presents the percentage of public and private sector workers ages 55-64 who died within either an 11-year period or a separate 6-year period after being interviewed. The third section uses regression analysis to assess how various factors impact the likelihood of dying. The final section concludes that public sector workers – especially women – do live longer than their private sector counterparts and that most of the difference can be explained by the higher education levels of public sector workers.
We use data from the Displaced Worker Surveys from 1984 to 2012 to investigate the differences in job loss rates between workers in the public and private sectors. Our focus is on how recessions affect the differential between job loss rates in the two sectors. We find that even after accounting for worker characteristics, the probability of job loss is higher for private sector workers than for public sector workers at all levels of government. The advantage of public sector employment in terms of job loss rates generally increases during recessions for all groups of public sector workers. Thus, the answer to the question posed in the title is that public sector jobs, while not generally recession-proof, do offer more security than private sector jobs, and the advantage widens during recessions. These patterns are present across genders, races, and educational groups.
This paper considers the determinants of male and female pay in the public and private sectors by estimating a joint model of sector allocation and wage determination using cross-sectional data from the Egyptian 1987 and 1997 labour force surveys. A model of compensating wage differentials is defined and estimated, in order to quantify the value of arguably the three most important non-pecuniary aspects of public sector employment: job security, fringe benefits (especially comprehensive retirement pensions) and lower effort and shorter hours which allow workers to supplement income through obtaining a second job. Estimates of the public-private differentials, correcting for differences in characteristics and selectivity, indicate a public sector disadvantage for males and a small advantage for females in 1987. Relative public sector wages improved for both males and females in 1997, and when adjustments for non-wage benefits are included, public sector premia are observed in all segments of the public sector for both males and females. The results highlight the importance of job security as the major factor determining the persistence of queues for public sector jobs in Egypt.
Beginning in the 1970's and continuing to the present, economists have examined the pay of public sector employees. Usually, an attempt is made to compare the compensation of public employees at various levels of government to workers in the private sector who are believed to be comparable. Of the many studies done, there is substantial variation in the operational meaning of "comparable." Nonetheless, the general finding is that public employees on average receive rents or, stated otherwise, are overcompensated when compared to employees in private employment. The estimated levels of rent seem to be highest at the federal and lowest at the local level of government. Despite the general finding, there are substantial differences in the quantitative estimates. The major focus of this paper is on a critical evaluation of the various empirical methodologies that have been employed. An attempt will be made to reconcile the differences observed and to suggest improvements in the method of estimation.
Public sector compensation has come under increased scrutiny from politicians and the media, but comprehensive technical comparisons of federal and private compensation have been largely absent from the discussion. Drawing from the academic literature and using the most recent government data, this report measures the generosity of federal salaries, benefits, and job security. Compared to similar private sector workers, we estimate that federal workers receive a salary premium of 14 percent, a benefits premium of 63 percent, and extra job security worth 17 percent of pay. Together, these generate an overall federal compensation premium of approximately 61 percent. Reducing federal employee compensation to market levels could save taxpayers roughly $77 billion per year.
Over the past several decades a number of empirical studies have demonstrated that job-satisfaction levels vary widely in the American labor force. The effect of age, tenure, salary, job type, job level, and work environment on an employee's job satisfaction has been extensively discussed. Studies have underscored the importance of identifying the determinants of employee job satisfaction by linking it to higher production and performance levels and to retention rates.
Renewed interest in increasing performance levels in government should interest public administrators in identifying factors that foster worker satisfaction. However little empirical attention has been given to evaluating job-satisfaction levels among public-sector employees. And given that the reward system in the public sector systematically differs from that of the private sector (in terms of pay, benefits, and psychic value), it seems likely that studies of satisfaction levels among private-sector employees may not be applicable to public-sector employees.
This paper utilizes analyses of the National Longitudinal Surveys of Youth (NLSY) to compare job-satisfaction levels among public-and private-sector employees. The NLSY is a representative sample of 12,686 men and women. Using this survey allows us to examine the actual work experiences, personal characteristics, and job-satisfaction levels of a selected set of public and private workers. If the factors that contribute to job satisfaction differ for public-and private-sector employees, as our results suggest they do, then such an analysis is long overdue.
This paper uses data from the U.S. Decennial Census and the Current Population Surveys to document the differential shifts that occurred in the wage structures of the public and privatesectors between 1960 and 2000. The wage gap between the typical public sector worker and a comparable private sector worker was relatively constant for men during this period, but declined substantially for women. Equally important, wage dispersion in the public sector was increasing relative to wage dispersion in the private sector prior to 1970, at the time when public sector employment was rising rapidly. Since 1970, however, there has been a significant relative compression of the wage distribution in the public sector. The different evolutions of the wage structures in the two sectors are an important determinant of the sorting of workers across sectors. As a result of the relative wage compression, the public sector found it increasingly more difficult to attract and retain high-skill workers
This research note uses two German data sets – the large-scale German Socio-Economic Panel and unique data from own student questionnaires – to analyse the relationship between risk aversion and the choice for public sector employment. Main results are: (1) more risk averse individuals sort into public sector employment, (2) the impact of career specific and unemployment risk attitudes is larger than the impact of general risk attitudes, and (3) risk taking is rewarded with higher wages in the private but not in the public sector.
Lining Up for Government Jobs Blog post in The Enterprise Blog (Febru-ary 28)
- Biggs
- Andrew
Biggs, Andrew G. 2011b. “Lining Up for Government Jobs.” Blog post in The Enterprise Blog (Febru-ary 28). Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute
The Value of Public Sec-tor Job Security.” Blog post in The Enterprise Blog
- Andrew G Biggs
Biggs, Andrew G. 2011a. “The Value of Public Sec-tor Job Security.” Blog post in The Enterprise Blog (July 28). Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute
US Business Cycle Expansions and Contractions
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