Research project Uncertain Future, Uncertain Past?

The project Uncertain Future, Uncertain Past? Exploring Precarious Work Lives and their Association with Health and Career Advancement in Sweden over Six Decades investigates lifetime experiences of precarious work in Sweden, with a focus on atypical labor contracts, employment instability, and unemployment from the 1960s to the early 2020s. Key questions include how varying degrees of precariousness affect income and health over time, and how precarious work has evolved since the 1960s, differing by education, gender, immigrant status, and urbanity.

The core data source is the Swedish Level-of-Living survey (LNU), which offers extensive longitudinal coverage, comprehensive work- and health-related questions, and panel structure, as well as links to annual register data. Through LNU, we will compile multiple indicators of precarious work lives across a long timeframe, featuring measures not previously analyzed. We will also incorporate register data for the entire population, enabling us to address regional divides and compare results across different samples.