Turnover as a Strategy to Escape Job Insecurity: The Role of Family Determinants in Dual-Earner Couples

Job insecurity is a stressful condition with well-known negative consequences. This study investigated the extent to which individuals voluntarily changed jobs as a strategy to cope with job insecurity, taking into account the family context. We tested whether job insecurity promoted voluntary turnover. Family factors were expected to either hamper or stimulate turnover, and to affect the relationship between job insecurity and turnover. Using longitudinal data from the Swiss Household Panel (2004–2013), we showed that men facing job insecurity were more likely to experience voluntary turnover. For women this was only true when they did not have preschool-aged children at home and experienced low levels of economic hardship. Moreover, family factors influenced voluntary turnover differently for men and women: Economic hardship increased the odds of voluntary turnover for men, whereas a partner’s job insecurity lowered the odds for women.