Does Job Insecurity Motivate Protest Participation? A Multilevel Analysis of Working-Age People from 18 Developed Countries

In recent decades, social scientists have devoted increased attention to job insecurity, a highly prominent stressor for workers today. Although social movements literature has examined other economic threats as mobilizing agents, the potential for job insecurity to stoke protest participation remains unknown. To investigate this issue, I analyze survey data gathered by the European Social Survey (n = 35,891) via face-to-face interviews. Hierarchical logistic regressions reveal job insecurity is significantly associated with participation in protests and is more important for protest than any other individual economic indicator, such as poor income, unemployment, and negative perceptions of the wider economy. Its effect is modest compared with biographical and political factors, such as education and antigovernment beliefs. The mobilizing effect of job insecurity is more pronounced when combined with contextual factors that exacerbate insecurity, namely, working in unstable service and private sector jobs, or living in countries with poor social safety nets.