Young adults on zero-hours contracts are less likely to be in good health, study finds

Young adults on zero-hours contracts are less likely to be in good health and are at higher risk of poor mental health than workers with stable jobs, according to a new study.

The study, Next Steps, by the UCL Institute of Education (IOE) also found that young zero hour workers were also at greater risk of reporting symptoms of psychological distress.

However, young adults who were unemployed were more than twice as likely to suffer from mental ill health compared to those who were in work. And, although shift workers were at no greater risk than those working regular hours to be in poor health, they were more likely to have psychological problems.

“Millennials have faced a number of challenges as they entered the world of work. They joined the labour market at the height of the most recent financial crisis and faced higher than ever university fees and student loan debt,” says Dr Morag Henderson, the lead author of the report.

There is evidence that those with a precarious relationship to the labour market, such as shift workers, zero-hours contract holders and the unemployed are more at risk of poor mental health and physical health than their peers, she added.

Researchers from the IOE’s Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) analysed data on more than 7,700 people living in England who were born in 1989-90. Two thirds of 25-year-olds were employed full-time, 1 in 8 (12%) were employed part time, and 7 per cent were unemployed. Around a quarter (23%) worked shifts, and 5 per cent had zero-hours contracts.

By occupation, the largest proportion of young adults (15%) were in professional roles, such as teachers, engineers and accountants. A further 14 per cent had professional support roles, including paramedics, librarians and pharmacists, 9 per cent were in administrative or secretarial occupations and 8 per cent had manual roles, such as general labourers and forestry workers.

The findings took into account background factors such as gender, ethnicity, social class, prior mental health, sleep duration, frequency of exercise and weight.

“One explanation for these findings is that financial stress or the stress associated with having a low-status job increases the risk of poor mental health. It may also be that the worry of having no work or irregular work triggers physical symptoms of stress, including chest pain, headaches and muscle tension,” says Henderson.

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